Feb. 17, 1870] 
NATURE 
417 
M. J. Rumpf presented a notice of the magnetic pyrites of 
Leoben in Carinthia, and of crystals of magnesite from Maria- 
Zell in Styria. M.C. von Ettingshausen read a paper on the 
fossil flora of Sagor in Carniola, which presents the characters 
of the Aquitainian flora. Prof. E. Suess noticed the occurrence 
of /usudine in the upper carboniferous limestone of the Southern 
Alps, which he had already compared with the Russian Fyszéina- 
limestone. The species found agrees with the 7 rodusta of 
Meek, from California. Abich has described a / sfherica from 
the upper carboniferous limestone of Armenia, whch is probably 
identical with 7. robusta. F. cylindrica occurs in Spain. M. Karl 
von Hauer communicated a paper on the occurrence of sulphur 
near Szwosyowice in Galicia; and M. K. M. Paul exhibited the 
geological map of the northern parts of the counties of Zemplin 
and Ungh in Hungary, and made some remarks upon the 
geology of the district. 
PHILADELPHIA 
Academy of Natural Sciences.—August 17.—Dr. Leidy 
made some remarks on a tooth of Agus fraternus, reading an 
extract from a letter by T. C. Broadhead relating thereto.—A 
paper on ‘‘ Brevoortia”’ by Alphonzo Wood was read. 
September 7.—Mr. Meehan made some remarks upon the de- 
velopment of the buds of plants. He said it was well known 
that all vegetable physiologists taught there were two classes of 
buds in plants—one called adventitious buds, which had a kind 
of nomadic existence, the other axillary buds, which were sup- 
posed to owe their origin to the leaf from the base of which they 
sprang. It was customary to speak of these as the parent leaves 
of the axillary buds. He would show that the leaf not only did 
not aid the axillary bud formation, but was rather a foe to bud 
development. He exhibited vigorous shoots of the Kentucky 
coffee and honey locust trees, and hichorins of walnuts, showing 
what had either been entirely overlooked by other botanists or 
passed over of no importance, that there were in these two or 
three buds instead of the usual axillary bud, one above anotherin 
direct line, and that in all these instances the farthest removed 
from the base of the leaf, and, of course, the one the least under 
its influence, was the largest and best developed. He gave the 
results of extended observations as proof of the same principle 
from single bud cases. He exhibited specimens of some maple 
shoots of the present season’s growth. —Mr. C. H. Redfield stated 
that the Aspidiam aculeatum (L.), though widely distributed over 
the globe, had, in the United States, been restricted, as was 
supposed, to the mountains and mountain gorges of New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont, and Northern New York, and to Northern 
Minnesota. He had, however, recently found it growing in abun- 
dance in the Stony Clove of the Catskill Mountains, about two 
degrees farther south than it had before been noticed, and under 
conditions very similar to those in which it grows in the notch of 
Mount Mansfield, Vermont. 
October 5.—A written communication was received from Prof. 
Ennis, entitled ‘‘ Meteors, their composition and the Cause of 
their Ignition,” and another, ‘‘On variations in the genus 
i gieothius,” by Elliott Cours, A.M., Ph.D. 
October 12.—Mr. Meehan presented a paper for publication, 
entitled ‘‘ On the Law of Development in the Flowers of A mérosie 
artemisillfolia.” My. Meehan accompanied the presentation 
with verbal remarks illustrated by the plants. 
October 19.—Mr. A. H. Smith made some remarks in regard 
to a plant discovered some years back by Michaux, and named 
by him Carex miliaris. Some time ago, near Moosehead Lake, 
Mr. Smith discovered plants which, when submitted to Gray, 
were called by him Carex retundata, and Carex pulla. These 
plants were immature; afterwards procuring perfect plants 
Mr. Smith thought that they were identical with the Carex 
miliaris of Michaux. 
December 21.—Prof. Cope made some remarks on a cranium 
of the Hyperacdron bidens from the coast of Rhode Island, pre- 
sented by Samuel Powell of Newport. He stated that it was a 
female which entered the harbour of the latter place with a calf. 
A male was some time after cast ashore dead near Dennis, 
Mass., and was preserved complete in the Mus. Comp. Zoology, 
Cambridge. (See Allen, Mammals, Massachusetts.) He 
said that the muzzle of the female was longer than repre- 
sented for European specimens, but that of the male was 
as short, and that no difference could be detected in 
the skeleton of either. He, therefore, retained the name 
Hf, bidens. He stated that MMesoplodon Sowerbiensis also 
occurred on the coast of Nantucket. He next exhibited the left 
ramus of the mandible of a finner whale of the miocene of Edge- 
combe Co. North Carolina. He pointed out its characters were 
nearest those of the Eschrichtius cephalus, but that there was a 
groove inside the upper edge of the jaw. He called it 
Eschrichtius polyporus. He exhibited a number of remains of 
fossil reptiles from Sampson Co. North Carolina, of cretaceous 
age, which were intrusive in miocene beds. Among these were 
humerus, tibia, fibula, metatarsus, caudal vertebra, and, perhaps, 
cervical vertebra and dermal bone of a gigantic Dinosaur, found 
together by Prof. H. C. Kerr, Director of the Geological Survey 
of North Carolina. The remains indicated a species having the 
same general form and size as the Hadrosaurus Foulket. The 
caudal vertebra was of very different form, and resembled 
more that of Hyleosaurus minus the diapophysis. This vertebra 
was elongate, depressed, and angulate. The animal presented 
various other points distinguishing it from Hadrosaurus, and was 
named Hypsiberma crassicauda, 
Two caudal vertebrze of another animal from the same county, 
but different locality, indicated a true Hadrosaurus. One, near 
the thirtieth caudal, was twice the size of that of AH Foulkei, the 
vertical diameter of the centum being 4°5 inches. It presented 
so many peculiarities of form that Prof. Cope thought it to have 
belonged to a species distinct from “7. Foulker. A caudal 
apparently éermzna/ was shorter than the same in that species. 
He named it Hadrosaurus tripos. Another reptile from the 
same locality was indicated by an elongate conic tooth. He 
named it Polydectes biturgidus. 
January 4.—Dr. Linz exhibited the broken extremity of the 
snout of a large extinct mammal brought by Dr. Hayden from 
Colorado Territory, which resembled in some respects the genus 
Sivatherium, especially in presenting a horn core on each side of 
the front. The nasals were even shorter than in Stvatheriunz, 
and the horn cores appear to be in advance of the orbits. He 
suggested that it might belong to Zitanotherium, but named it 
Megacerops coloradensis. He stated that he had received from the 
same region remains of a large reptile allied to Porcilopleurumnt. 
Prof. Cope exhibited the ischiatic bones of two Drrosauria. 
One of these, the Afgadactylus polyzebus of Hitchcock, had 
probably been one of those that left its tracks in the strata of 
the Connecticut valley sandstone. With these a subround bi- 
lobed impression had frequently been found, just behind the heels 
on the median line. This he showed to be the impression of 
the extremities of the ischia. These bones were directed back- 
wards, and for the posterior half of their length were in close 
contact, forming an elongate rod, on which the animal rested 
when in a sitting position. The structure in Zac/a~s was shown 
to be quite similar.—Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, ex- 
hibited a tooth of a new species of Rhinoceros from the miocene 
of Squankum, New Jersey, which he regarded as representing a 
species distinct from those already known. He called it R. matu- 
tinus, and stated that it was the first species discovered east of 
the Mississippi. He exhibited several vertebrze ofa Hadrosaurus 
from the upper cretaceous greensand of Bamerbaro, New Jersey, 
which belonged to a species of smaller size than the A. Foz/kei. 
He regarded it as distinct, and called it HY minor. He ex- 
hibited a large tooth of a mosasauroid reptile, of a shorter and 
thicker form than usual, and which had been taken from a 
fragment ofa jaw, which indicated a species with short, 
massive muzzle. It is from North Carolina, He proposed to 
call it Mosasaurus crassidus. The vertebra of another Mosa- 
sauroid was exhibited, which he referred to the genus Lvodovs 
(regarded by Prof. Cope as synonymous with A/acrosaurus), and 
which presented peculiarities which separated it from Z. /acris 
and Z. validis. Its diapophyses were prolonged to an unusual 
distance on the caudal series of vertebrae. He proposed for it 
the name of Liodon laticaudus.—Thomas Meeham referred to 
his former observations that the so-called leaves of coniferce were 
but phylloid branchlets, and that the real leaves existed chiefly 
in the form of adnate scales. In some conifere these adnate 
leaves had the power of elongating into free foliaceous awns. 
The larch was an instance. In /%us this had never been noticed. 
He now exhibited specimens of Pinus serotina, in which the 
leaf scales under each fascicle of phylloidze had developed into 
leafy awns two inches in length, demonstrating the correctness of his 
original observation. He further remarked that those adnate 
true leaves were as different on different species, as the leaves 
of other plants, and afforded excellent specific characters, much 
better in fact than many derived from the number of phylloide 
in a fascicle, or even from many points inthe cones. Specimens 
to illustrate this were exhibited. 
