408 
NATURE 
Plo: 20, 1g1e 
sun, the second and third showing the difference in 
the illumination of the Pic d’Arlas produced by the 
interception of the sun’s most actinic radiations by 
the dark moon. 
No. 4574 of the Astronomische Nachrichten also 
contains a number of communications concerning the 
eclipse, in one of which Prof. Hartmann states that 
the observations made at Gé6ttingen show that the 
eclipse took place 2577 seconds earlier than the time 
calculated from the data given in the Nautical 
Almanac; this, he states, would give a correction of 
+10°3” to the moon’s place as there given. 
MAGNITUDES OF Nova GEmINORUM No. 2.—No. 4574 
of the Astronomische Nachrichten contains a number 
of observations of the magnitude of Nova Geminorum 
from the time of its discovery, March 13, to May 15. 
The observations made at the Copenhagen Observa- 
tory, and communicated by Dr. Strémgren, give the 
magnitude on March 13 as 4°22 on the P.D. scale, 
and show apparent brightenings on March 24 (4°72) 
and April 17 (6°52); the magnitude from May 13 to 
May 15, the final observation, was 7°81. : 
DESIGNATIONS OF NEWLY-DISCOVERED VARIABLE 
Srars.—In No. 4579 of the Astronomische Nachrichten 
the variable-star commission of the Astronomische 
Gesellschaft publishes the permanent designations of 
141 variable stars discovered in recent years. In addi- 
tion to the provisional number, they give the 1900 
position, the precession, and the range of magnitude 
for each object. 
SOME RECENT WORK IN 
PALAZONTOLOGY. 
HESTER A. REEDS has examined the fauna of 
“The Hunton Formation of Oklahoma"’ (Amer. 
Journ. Science, vol. xxxii., p. 256), and concludes that 
this so-called formation contains two Silurian and 
two Devonian series. Calceola occurs in the lowest 
series. A table is given of species that range over 
several divisions, and there is at once seen to be a 
marked faunistic change between the two Silurian 
series. The author divides the former ‘‘ Middle Hun- 
ton”’ series along a similar break, based on the 
difference in the species that are absolutely charac- 
teristic of its lower and upper portions. The upper 
portion now goes into the Devonian. 
M. Yokoyama describes ‘‘Some Tertiary Fossils 
from the Miike Coal-field in S.W. Japan” (Journ. 
College of Science, Tokyo, vol. xxvii., article 20), 
which were discovered during the sinking of a shaft. 
The familiar Pholadomya margaritacea and Aturia 
zic-zac of Europe occur here, with a number of 
Cainozoic molluscs, and the coal-bearing series is 
regarded as Palzogene, i.e. Lower Tertiary. A new 
species, Venericardia nipponica, proves to be very 
characteristic. Two mew crustacean species are de- 
scribed, and are drawn among the excellent illustra- 
tions by Ishizaki. 
Franz Toula (‘‘Palaontologische Mitteilungen aus 
den Sammlungen von Kronstadt in Sibenbiirgen,” 
Abhandl. k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, Vienna, Bdlecx, 
Heft 5, price 12 kxronen) describes, in a handsome 
folio memoir, a number of things that he found in 
various hands when visiting Kronstadt (Brassdé), in 
Transvlvania. He discusses a fauna of Liassic age 
from Neustadt, and another from a bed three metres 
thick near Alsé-Rdkos. Several of the poorly pre- 
served ammonites from the latter may prove to be 
new species. Perhaps the most striking plate is 
furnished by Rhynchonella (Peregrinella) multi- 
carinata, from Zajzon, a form originally known from 
the Lower Cretaceous of France, and measuring 
some 75 mm. high, 85 mm. broad, and 50 mm. thick. 
NO. 2225, VoL. 89] 
Some notes on Pliocene vertebrates 
memoir, which certainly does justice 
obscure material. 
Coming now to papers on particular groups of 
fossils, we note that M. C. Stopes has investigated 
the ‘‘Dragon Tree,"’ or Draczna, of the Kentish 
Rag (Lower Cretaceous of England), and concludes 
that it is not an angiosperm. Seward had already 
suggested a relationship to the cycads. The author 
has now found crumbling wood in certain specimens, 
from which she has successfully isolated tracheids, 
and she refers the tree to the higher conifers under 
the name of Coniferocaulon Benstedii (Geol. Mag., 
IQII, p. 55)- 
G. R. Wieland (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xxxii., 
IQII, p. 133) continues his elaborate studies of 
American fossil cycads, and is able, on the basis of 
new material, to give a very detailed exposition of 
the structure of the seeds of Cycadeoidea. He 
believes that in this plant ‘‘we deal with a genus of 
world-wide distribution and long persistence in time.” 
Numerous references are naturally made _ to 
European workers. 
E. W. Berry describes the ‘‘Flora of the Raritan 
Formation,’’ a Cretaceous series in New Jersey 
(Geol. Surv. New Jersey, Bull. 3, 1911). The beds 
are regarded as slightly older than the Dalkxota series, 
but also Cenomanian (p. 21). The paper is written 
in an explanatory style, which makes it far more 
pleasant reading for the geologist than many others 
on fossil botany; and surely the geologist has a 
primary interest in such matters. The flora is re- 
presented mainly by the leaves of dicotyledons, and 
a distribution from the Arctic area is suggested 
(p._51) 
E. 
conclude the 
to somewhat 
Heron-Allen and A. Earland have completed 
their studies of the ‘‘ Recent and Fossil Foraminifera 
of the Shore-sands at Selsey Bill, Sussex,” the first 
part of which appeared in 1908 (Journ. Roy. Micro- 
scop. Soc., 1911, pp. 298 and 436). The tabular list 
of species shows the patient care required for such 
work. It would have been convenient if the fossil 
forms had been marked off in these concluding pages 
from the recent (see also Nature, May 23, 10912, 
Pp. 290). 
Richard Schubert contributes a folio memoir on 
“Die fossilen Foraminiferen des Bismarckarchipels ” 
off New Guinea to the Abhandlungen der k.k. geo- 
logischen Reichsanstalt (Bd. xx., 1911, Heft 4). The 
material was collected by the geographer Karl 
Sapper during an official German expedition, and 
represents Cainozoic deep-water deposits. Some of 
the forms were studied in thin sections of the con- 
solidated ooze, of which interesting photographs are 
given on Plates i. and v. The author regards the 
upraised Globigerina oozes (pp. 38 and 39) as having 
been formed in Pliocene times in water not 
less than 1000 metres deep, and probably between 
depths of 2000 and 3000 metres (say, 1200 fathoms). 
Some of them are now lifted tooo metres above the 
sea. It is suggested that some oozes consisting of 
closely packed Globigerinz, all of one size, represent 
material washed up into lagoons and separated into 
distinct grades by the waves. The deposits studied 
range in age from Lower Oligocene (marked by 
species of Nummulites) to Pliocene. 
F. Springer, in ‘“‘The Crinoid Fauna of the Knob- 
stone Formation,’ treats of a number of pelmatozoan 
genera that bear upon the stratigraphy of the Lower 
Carboniferous beds in Kentucky and adjacent States 
(Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. xli., 1911, p. 175). 
Ray S. Bassler has brought the experience gained 
among the rich material of America to bear on the 
“Early Palaeozoic Bryozoa of the Baltic Provinces” 
