July 27, iS&J.j 



SCIENCE. 



113 



maining unchanged. For purposes of control, similar 

 sections are first treated with either nitric acid or a 

 solution of bleachinij-powder, by which reagents, 

 preferably the latter, the lignino is removed. Lemaire 

 has detected lignine in the epidermal w.-iUs of Cycads, 

 many Coniferae, and in the petiole of certain ferns. 

 The stomata of gymnospermous plants have been 

 found by him to always have the membranes some- 

 what lignified. — (Ann. sc. nat., xv. 302.) g. l. a. 



[123 



Mentzelia laevicaulis as a fly-catcher. — Mar- 

 cus A. .Junes of Salt L.ike City, acting upon Dr. 

 Gray"s suggestion, e.-samined this plant with the fol- 

 lowing interesting results: "the leaves are thickly 

 beset with coarse hairs, which are furnished with 

 several pairs of barbs pointing downward along 

 them, while the top has an anchor-shaped summit 

 twice as large as the other barbs. These hairs stand 

 so close together that tlie barbs almost touch. 

 Thickly studding the leaf, were many dead and dying 

 mosquitoes, species of .aphis, and other small insects. 

 Some of these were caught by the bead; but most 

 of them were held by the proboscis, as their heads 

 were too large to slip between the barbs. All 

 were more or less mutilated, probably by other in- 

 sects. A sweet fluid was secreted by the leaf, and 

 this attracted the insects. There was no evidence of 

 any digestion going on, as none of the victims could 

 get close enough to the surface of the leaf to be 

 touched by the fluid." — (Bull. Torrey club, June.) 

 G. L. G. [124 



Elongation of pedicels in Didymoplexis. — 

 Hemsley calls attention to the elongation of the 

 pedicels in these Asiatic orchids .after fertilization, 

 by which the ripening capsules are carried up above 

 the decaying vegetable matter in which the plants 

 grow. It is thus quite different from the elongation 

 of the flower-stalks of Arachis and other plants which 

 bury their ripening fruit. What its exact bearing on 

 dissemination may be is not quite clear. — (Joum. 

 Linn. »oc. hot., June 6.) w. t. [125 



ZOOLOGY. 



UoUusks. 



Mediterranean Mollusca. — Dr. J. Gwyn Jef- 

 freys publishes a useful annotated list of species ob- 

 tained near Crete by .Vdmiral Spratt in seventy to a 

 hundred and twenty fathoms. They are mostly quite 

 minute. Ten new species are described and well 

 figured. One, an extremely minute shell, which 

 might well prove the fry of something larger, is 

 globosely conical, imperforate, and with the pillar 

 angulated and spread out at its base. It is referred 

 to a new genus, Brugnonia, and placed in the Solari- 

 idae. A list of Cstracoda and Foraminifera, collected 

 with the shells, is added by Jlr. David Robertson. 

 — (Ann. ma'j. nat. hist., yiny.) w. H. i). [126 



Structure of the shell in brachiopods and 

 chitons. — Van Bemmelen has prepared an English 

 abstract of th.at part of his Dutch paper which relates 

 to the brachiopods. The principal points of the 

 dissertation are also to be found In the Jenaische zeit- 



scliri/l. ix. h. 1-2, l&S:;. That part relating to the chi- 

 tons, which is the more interesting becatiso in a fresher 

 field, has not been made available for students who 

 do not read Dutch. The paper is decidedly sopho- 

 morical, containing much that is important but not 

 new. and a little that is new but not important, if 

 we except the opinions of the author. The st.ateraent 

 that there is any difference, except in degree, between 

 the structure of the peduncle in Lingulidae and in 

 other brachiopods, will require much more demonstra- 

 tion before it can hope to be accepted; and the prin- 

 ciples upon which he includes the greater in the less 

 by placing brachioiiods among the chaetopods, would, 

 if carried to their logical conclusion, incluile man 

 among the Ascidians. — (.Inn. inwj. nat. hint., May.) 

 w. II. D. [127 



Economic mollusks at the Fisheries exhibi- 

 tion. — The catalogue of the economic mollusks 

 exhibited by the U. S. fish-commission at London, 

 prepared by Lieut. Winslow, U.S.N., has just ap- 

 peared, and forms a pamphlet of 85 pages, contain- 

 ing much information. — w. u. D. [128 



VERTEBRATES. 



Homologues of the parts of the temporal 

 bones. — M. Lavocat, at the close of his revision of 

 this subject, offers the following conclusions : — 



1. That the relations of the squamosal and the 

 zygomatic process in mammals show how ill applied 

 to the oviparous vertebrates are the terms ' tympanic 

 bone' (o.i tympanique), generally applied to the 

 squamosal, and ' squamous portion of the temporal ' 

 {icaille temporale), given to the zygomatic process. 

 In the oviparous vertebrates the tympanic bone does 

 not exist. 2. That the zygomatic process, always 

 included between the squamosal and the jugal, 

 should never he confounded with the squamosal. 

 :;. That there is a vulgar error relative to the tempo- 

 ral of serpents, in which the superior part of the 

 squamosal has been considered to be the mastoid ; 

 while, in reality, the mastoid is invariably situated 

 above or behind the auditory cavity, and is never 

 movable. 4. That in birds the sciuamosal cannot be 

 represented by the posterior frontal, because the lat- 

 ter is orbital in its relations, while the former is tem- 

 poral ; also that the zygomatic process should not 

 be confounded with the jugal, the one having rela- 

 tions with the squamosal, the other with the max- 

 illary. 



The author also states concisely that that bone 

 nuist be considered the squamosal which, though 

 fixed or movable, is situated in front of the auditory 

 canal, and articulates with the pterygoid and the 

 mandible. In the oviparous vertebrates, the squa- 

 mosal h.as commonly been wrongly designated "the 

 tympanic' The zygomatic process, whether fixed or 

 free, is always included between the squamosal and 

 the malar. The parts of the temporal are also clear- 

 ly distinguishable by their toleological relations. 



The author furnishes the data for the table (see 

 p. 114) of the synonymy of the temporal bone in the 

 fishes and lower vertebrates. — (Mem. acad. sc. 7'ou- 

 J'iU«e, iv. 1.S82, 71.) f. w. t. [129 



