July 28, 19 10] 



NATURE 



129 



are not more than 50 feet deep, and none has yet been 

 proved to continue below 300 to 500 feet. The future of 

 manganese mining is liinited by some of the same factors 

 3! iron mining, owing to the limited range of the ordinary 

 oxide ores. The mines are still open quarries, from which 

 the ore can be very cheaply produced. Mr. Fermor's 

 m.oMOgraph concludes with a comparatively elementary 

 statement regarding the methods of mining and the 

 economics of the industry. More precise information as to 

 labour costs and efficiency would have been of interest. 

 The rates of pay are from ih to 7 annas a day for men, 

 \\ to 4 annas for women, and from i to 3 annas for 

 children ; the efficiency must be very low if it may be 

 judged by dividing the annual output of the different mines 

 by the number of people recorded as engaged in them. 

 The native miners appear to insist on more holidays than 

 Welsh colliers, without having the same excuse. 



Owing to the present great actjvity in Indian manganese 

 mining, the known deposits there cannot last very long. 

 Mr. Kermor in 1907 estimated that the supplies would be 

 worked out in from thirty to fifty years. Now, in spite 

 of some additional discoveries of ore, he is disposed to 

 reduce even that short limit; and he earnestly warns India 

 that it is adopting a wasteful policy in the reckless export 

 of manganese, which will have to be purchased from other 

 countries for the manufacture of ferro-manganese when 

 India works its enormous supplies of iron ores. Owing to 

 the possibility, however, of the discovery of fresh deposits 

 and of the invention of new processes that may supplant 

 manganese, it is not proposed to impose legal restrictions 

 on the export of the ore. J. W. G. 



THE STRUCTURE OF CRETACEOUS PLANTS. 

 LJITHERTO our knowledge of the structure, as dis- 

 tinguished from the mere external appearance, of 

 Mesozoic plants has been for the most part limited to the 

 older floras, in which only the earlier types, such as ferns, 

 cycadophytes and conifers, are represented. From the 

 Upper Cretaceous, the epoch when the now dominant 

 angiosperms first overspread the world, little structural 

 material has been available until lately, if we except the 

 petrified wood of palms, which has long been known and 

 is of the utmost interest. 



At the present time new facts of great value are coming 

 in from two principal sources — from the researches of 

 Drs. HoUick and Jeffrey on the lignites of the eastern 

 United States, and from the work of the authors below 

 cited on the petrifications from northern Japan. 



1 he specimens described in the present paper, which 

 must be regarded as only a first instalment of the work, 

 were among those collected by Miss Slopes on her recent 

 expedition, undertaken with the assistance of a grant from 

 the Royal Society, and helped in every possible way by 

 the Government and universities of Japan. Eighteen types 

 are described — not a large number, but quite enough to 

 make a good beginning. The number of species with 

 structure preserved is not very large, even in the best 

 known fossil floras. We think, however, that the authors 

 in their comparison somewhat underestimate the richness 

 of the English Carboniferous flora in admitting only about 

 seventy structural species ; 100 would be nearer the mark. 



The flora investigated is a mixed one, the eighteen 

 species including one fungus, three ferns, eight gymno- 

 sperms, and six angiosperms ; such proportions are quite 

 unusual, the angiosperms commonly being dominant if 

 they appear at all. 



Only a few of the most important forms can be referred 

 to here. .Among the ferns, Schizacopteris inesozoica bears 

 the characteristic sporangia of Schizseaceae, Aneimia being 

 the nearest genus. Of the gymnosperms, Niponophyllum 

 cordaitiforme may be either a leaf or a leaflet ; if the 

 former, it may be a belated member of the ancient 

 Cordaitea? ; if the latter, it may be akin to the Bennettiteae. 



Yczonia vulgaris, with a cypress-like habit, has a very 

 peculiar structure, the small adpressed leaves containing 

 numerous vascular bundles. If, as there is reason to 



1 •' Studie? on Ih- Structure and Affinities of Cretaceou's PLints." By Dr. 

 Marie C. Stopes and Prof. K. Fuji!. PhU. Trans. Rcyal Society, Series B. 

 ' ' Pp- 9° : plates 9. (Royal .Society, 1910.) 



NO. 2126, VOL. 84] 



suspect, the cone Yezostrobus Oliveri was its fruit, the ■ 

 plant appears to represent a type intermediate in certain 

 respects between Cycadophyta and Conifers. 



Cnnninghamioslrobns yubariensis shows a clear affinity 

 with the recent Cunninghainia, while Cryptomeriopsis 

 antiqua, so far as vegetative characters can decide, comes 

 iiear the familiar Cryptomeria of modern Japan. 



Among the fossils referred to angiosperms, Saitruropsis 

 niponensis shows an anatomical structure similar in some 

 wars to that of Saururus, an ally of the peppers. Some 

 readers may perhaps ask if it is quite certain that this 

 plant is an angiosperm, and may even think of a possible 

 coinparison with Ophioglossacea;. In the meantime, the 

 authors' suggestion is at any rate tenable; It is interest- 

 ing that the commonest angiosperm in these rocks, Sahio- 

 caulis Sakuraii, appears to show the nearest affinity with 

 the native climbing plant Sabia japonica. 



The most sensational discovery, however, is that of a 

 three-celled ovary of the type of Liliaceee, for this is the 

 first case in which any angiospermous fructification has 

 been found fossil with its structure preserved. A perianth 

 or bract is adherent to the lower portion of the ovary, 

 making it partly inferior. It is curious, if somewhat dis- 

 appointing, to find that this ancient flower appears to have 

 been already so advanced as to give no clue to its ancestry. 



In many cases diagrammatic text-figures are used very 

 advantageously to supplement the photographs (sometimes 

 a little obscure) which form the bulk of the illustrations. 



The authors' concluding remarks suitably sum up the 

 results so far attained : — " These new fossil plants, then, 

 seem to be an interesting community, consisting of a 

 mixture of old and new types, of higher and lower plants 

 mixed in nicely balanced proportions : a community, which 

 in some respects, at any rate, one could have hardly 

 imagined from the fossil remains hitherto available from 

 the Epoch." 



ARCHMOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



INVESTIGATIONS IN ARKANSAS AND 



LOUISIANA.' 



,] R. CLARENCE B. MOORE in 1908-9 investigated 



'■*- the mounds and cemeteries of the valley of the 

 Ouachita, a river that rises in central western Arkansas 

 and flows south-easterly into the State of Louisiana ; its 

 lower course is the Black River, which joins the Red 

 River, a tributary of the Mississippi. The more striking 

 remains are earthenware vessels of very varied forms and 

 different colours. The most common form of decoration 

 consists of the original surface of the vessel being left in 

 scroll bands and round or oval discs, the interspaces being 

 generally filled up with parallel lines or cross-hatching. 

 The accompanying figure illustrates a superb bottle. 

 S.J inches in height, which has a coating of red pigment 

 of superior quality, through which is incised a beautiful 

 combination of discs and running scrolls in a field of 

 parallel lines which emphasise the design ; possibly the 

 incised lines were accentuated with white pigment, but no 

 trace of this remains. The technique of some of the 

 %'essels from Glendora is superior to anything of the kind 

 hitherto met with outside the Lower Mississippi region. 



The excavations were confined almost entirely to land 

 that was, or had been, under cultivation. When the 

 aborigines selected dwelling sites along rivers subject to 

 overflow, they naturally chose high ground ; and later, 

 when Europeans selected land to clear for cultivation, they 

 were similarly influenced, especially as much of this land 

 had been enriched by aboriginal deposits. It is needless to 

 say that the report is illustrated in that sumptuous manijer 

 which characterises Mr. Moore's publications. 



The value of the memoir is enhanced by a very careful 

 study, by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the skeletal remains dis- 

 covered by Mr. Moore. This constitutes a welcome con- 

 tribution to the craniologv and osteology of the American 

 Indian, and we hope it will be followed by similar studies 

 by the same anatomist. Dr. Hrdlicka, in an attempt to 

 determine the amount of prognathism, made use of the 



1 " Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley." Hi' Clarence B. Moore (Journal 

 of the Academy of Natur.il Sciences of Philadelphia, end series, vol. xiv. 

 part i., 1909). 



M' 



