August 2, 1877] 



NA TURE 



265 



who write upon the progress of plant life on the globe, I take 

 the liberty of reporting briefly what we really know in regard to 

 the cretaceous flora of the North American continent. 



Some twenty years ai;o numerous impressions of angiosper- 

 mous leaves were brouglit by Dr. Hayden and myself from the 

 group of sandstones which lie at the base of our cretaceous 

 system. Outline sketches of a part of these were sent by Mr. 

 Meek to Prof Heer, of Zuri h. lie pronounced them miocene 

 tertiary. To this conclusion he was led by their high botanical 

 rank, their generic affinities with miocene plants, and the sup- 

 posed identity of some of them with miocene species. 



The announcement of Prof. Heer's decision led to a somewhat 

 earnest discussion, in which Prof. Heer, M. J. Marcou, and Mr. 

 Leo Lesquereux supported the view that the plants in question 

 were tertiary, while Messrs. Meek and myself asserted that they 

 were cretaceous, because the strata which contain them are over- 

 lain by more than 2,000 feet of limestones filled with charac- 

 teristic cretaceous fossils, a number of which are identical with 

 those found in the gault and chalk of Europe. An end was 

 finally put to this debate by M. Marcou and Prof. Capellini, of 

 Bologna, going to Kansas and collecting a large number of these 

 leaves from beds overlain by unmistakable cretaceous strata. 

 The true position of this flora was then not only acknowledged 

 but proclaimed by these gentlemen, and since that time every 

 geologist in America has accepted the statement which I made in 

 my letter to Messrs. Meek and Hayden in 1S58, and in my article 

 on the Ancient Vegetation of North America [.American Journal 

 of Science, vol. xxi.x., 1S60, p. 208), that "the American flora 

 assumed nearly the botanical character it now has in the cre- 

 taceous age, and that our lower cretaceous rocks contain the 

 remains of sixty or seventy species of angiospermous trees, many 

 of which belong to our most common living genera, such as 

 Quercus, Saiix, Magnolia, Flatanus, Liriodsndron, Fagus, Alnus, 

 Liquidambar, &c." 



Since the settlement of this question a large number of 

 additions have been made to the then known species of this 

 flora, and it is probably not too much to say that we have 

 obtained leaves of nearly one hundred species of angiospermous 

 trees from the base of our cretaceous system, the equivalent of 

 the upper greensand of England. 



All the leaves figured in Lesquereux's " Fossil Flora of the 

 Western Territories," part I., were obtained from this horizon, 

 and a large number of additional species have been described by 

 Prof Heer in his " Phyllites Cretacea," or by myself in " Our 

 Later Extuict Floras," while many others yet wait publication. 



The plants of our upper cretaceous and tertiary rocks have 

 not yet been fully described, and there is some difference of 

 opinion as to where the line should be drawn between these two 

 systems, but it is quite certain that a large part of the species 

 described by Mr. Lesquereux from the ' ' lignite beds," and 

 referred by him to the tertiary, are really cretaceous ; not only 

 because they are associated with Ammonites, Inocerainiis, and 

 other cretaceous fossils, but because the strata which contain 

 them underlie unconformably the Coryphodon beds, the base of 

 our eocene. Whatever shall be ultimately decided in regard to 

 the line of separation between our later cretaceous and earlier 

 tertiary strata, this will in no wise affect our conclusions in 

 regard to the general facies of the American cretaceous flora. 

 The statements made many years since are confirmed by all 

 fresh evidence, and now stand unquestionable, that between the 

 trias and the chalk — we know nothing of our Jurassic flora — 

 the vegetation of North America was revolutionised, and that at 

 the beginning of our cretaceous age it had assumed essentially 

 the character and consisted chiefly of the same generic elements 

 that it exhibits now. 



I may also add that up to the present time no species of Am- 

 monites, BacuUtes, or Inoceramus have yet been found in America 

 above the cretaceous system ; and that so far as we now know, 

 these genera are as decisive of the age of the strata which 

 contain them here as in the Old World. J. S. NEWBtRRY 



Columbia College, New York, June 19 



Meteorological Notes from Lisbon 

 The following meteorological notes, compiled in great part 

 from the daily bulletins of the Observatorio Real of Lisbon, 

 supplemented by observations made by myself, by means of a 

 Casella's self-registering thermometer and a good aneroid baro- 

 meter, during a seven months' residence in that city, may not 

 be without some value to weather observers. I arrived on 



October 15, consequently the observations for this month refer 

 only to the latter half. The records were made at 9 A. M. and 

 at 5 P.M. To save space the readings will be given throughout 

 (except for October) in the following order : — I. Barometer 

 (reduced to sea-level), {a) the average of observations taken at 



9 A.M, (/') the highest, and (<-) the lowest reading of the month. 

 II. Thermometer (Fahrenheit), [a] average of daily observations 

 made at 9 A..M., (b) average of the highest, and (c) of the lowest 

 readings in the twenty-four hours ; (d) the highest, and {e) the 

 lowest reading of the month. HI. Direction of Wmd : N. S. E. 

 W. represent the directions indicated, or any point thereof, after 

 which the number of days is given on which it blew from that 

 quarter. IV. The rain of the month is stated in inches. 



October, 1S76. — The morning temperatures ranged from 

 54° F. to 70° ; midday, from 62" to 80° ; and evening, 53° to 72° ; 

 the average of the night temperature for the half-month, 52'2 ; 

 and the average rainiall for the same period was 3'8 inches. 

 No wind record was kept. 



November, 1876. — I. (a) 29*95, (*) 30'44> W 29 ■44- This 

 last reading is the lecord of the 12th, and was accompanied by 

 a terrific gale from the south-west, which wrought much damage 

 both on land, on the river, and at sea. Several residents, who 

 were not unfamiliar with earthquake shocks, averred that they 

 felt a distinct tremor of the earth about 4 a.m., at which time 

 the barometer registered 29 inches. In the Bay of Biscay on 

 the same morning the lowest point reached by the mercury was 

 28*25, as I was, I believe accurately, informed by the captain of 

 a Glasgow steamer which arrived in the Tagus some days later. 

 11. {a) 57'-59. (*) 63°-9 [A 54-09 (</) 7o°-98 (0 46". III. N. 

 7 days, S. 10, E. 7, W. 2 ; of 3 days no record. IV. Rain, 



10 inches, which fell on 17 days. This was one of the most 

 rainy Novembers for many years. The rainfall of the year 1S74 

 was 1 7' 2, and that of 1875, '^'3 inches. The total amounts for 

 the months of November from 1S73-1875 was 5*5 inches. The 

 mean of this month for the last twenty years is 4 '3 inches. Most 

 destructive floods occurred during the month. 



December, 1876. — I. (a) 2996, ib) 30'3, (c) 29*4 inches. 

 II. [a] 54''-8, (*) 59^-5, {c) 51-6, [d] 65°-5, (.-) 44°-2. III. N. 5, 

 S. 18, E. o, W. 5, calm 3 days. IV. Rain 19'19 inches on 28 

 days, greatest fall on I day (5th) 3 '2 inches, and least '003. 



January, 1S77.— I. (a) 30-18, (*) 30-58, (c) 29-54 mches. 

 II. (a) 520-93, (*) 58-96, (c) 50-8, (d) 6s»-66, (.-) 44°. III. N. 

 17, S. 9, E. o, W. 3, calm 2 days. IV. Rain which fell on 14 

 days, 7-007 inches ; from ist to loth, 6-669 inches. 



February, 1877.— I. (d) 30-35, yb) 30-54, (c) 29-92 inches. 

 II. {a) 52°, [b] 56°-64, {c) 48°-29, {d) dfl^, [e) 42^-9 (the lowest 

 temperature of the seven months). III. N. 25, S, i, E. I, W. 

 o, calm I day. IV. Rain, which fell on 2 days, i -28 inches. 



March, 1877. — I. {a) 2994, {b) 30-39, (c) 29-36 inches. II. 

 («) 47°-63, {*) 59°-34, (A 48"-S, W yi'-b, {e) 430-3. III. N. 10, 

 S. 9, E. I, W. 6, calm I, of 4 days no record. IV. Rain, 

 which fell on 13 days, 2-5 inches. 



April, 1877. — I. (a) 29-92 (b) 30-13, {e] 29-60 inches. IL 

 („) 65»-5 {b) 62°-9, (c) 5i°-9, (d) 7i°-7, (=■) 48''-2. HI. N. 8, 

 S. 8, E. I, W. II, 2 days unrecorded. IV. Rain in 17 days, 

 6-5. 



I would draw the attention of those threatened with bronchial 

 or pulmonary complaints to this locality as a winter and spring 

 refuge. The site of the city ol Lisbon is finely chosen, facing 

 almost due south, and the position of the principal part of the 

 town in which the chief hotels are, is nearly sheltered from the 

 northerly and easterly winds by surrounding heights. It is of 

 easy access from England — 3,^ days, and sometimes fewer, from 

 Southampton by a royal mail steamer. Fires are rarely to be 

 seen in a Portuguese sitting-room, and during the seven months 

 of my sojourn there it was necessary only once or twice to have 

 one in our room for an invalid's sake. I had an opportunity of 

 seeing many sufferers both en rout:: for, and again returning to 

 England from, Madeira. Some of them complained much of 

 the weather experienced there, and said how they wished they 

 had remained in, Lisbon, where the climate seemed equally to 

 suit them, and where they should have had at least more com- 

 forts, more cheerful society, and more varied means for killing 

 the Enemy— time. Henry O. Forbes 



Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects 



In my last article on Alpine Gentiana species, I supposed that 

 the chief, if not the only fertiliser of G. bavartca and verna might 

 be Macroglossa stellatarum with its proboscis of 25-28 mm. 



