802 



SCIENCE. 



Vol. II., No. 46. 



The paper marshals the stratigraphic evidence 

 only, leaving the paleontologic to form the snbject 

 of a future communication. — [Phil. soc. Washing- 

 ton; meeting Nov. 24, 1S83.) [518 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

 Influence of climate on vegetation in Alaska. 

 — In his remarks on glaciers in Alaska, Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan remarked, that, on the top of what are known 

 as ' totem-poles ' in some of the Indian villages, trees 

 of very large size would often be seen growing. 

 These poles are thick logs of hemlock or spruce, set 

 up before the doors of Indian lodges, carved all over 

 with queer characters representing living creatures 

 of every description. These inscriptions are sup- 

 posed to be genealogies, or to tell of some famous 

 event in the family history. The poles are not erected 

 by Indians now, and it is difficult to get any connected 

 accounts of what they really tell. At a very old In- 

 dian village, called Kaigan, there are a large number 

 of these poles, with few, or, in some cases, no carv- 

 ings on them, among many which are wholly cov- 

 ered ; and these all had one or more trees of Abies 

 sitkensis growing on them. One tree must have been 

 about twenty years old, and was half as tall as the 

 pole on which it was growing. The pole may have 

 been twenty feet high. The roots of the tree had 

 descended the whole length of the poles, and had 

 gone into the ground from whigh the larger trees 

 now derived nourishment. In one case the root had 

 grown so large as to split the thick pole on one side 

 from the top to the bottom ; and this root projected 

 along the whole length, about two inches beyond the 

 outer circumference of the pole. Only in an atmos- 

 phere surcharged with moisture could a seed sprout 

 on the top of a pole twenty feet from the ground, 

 and continue for years to grow almost or quite as 

 well as if it were surrounded by soil. He had seen 

 a bush of Lanicera involucrata which was of im- 

 mense size as compared with what he had seen in 

 Colorado and elsewhere. The plant was at the 

 back of an Indian lodge, and beside a pathway, cut 

 against the hillside. The stems near the ground 

 were as thick as his arm, and the whole plant was 

 covered with very large blackberries. Stopping in 

 admiration to look at and admire the specimen 

 brought numbers of Indians to see what was the 

 subject; and these smiled indulgently on being made 

 to understand that only the sight of a huge bush had 

 attracted the travellers' attention. — (Acaci. nat. sc. 

 Philad. ; meeting Nov. 6. ) [519 



BOTANY. 



(.Fossil.) 



Australian coal flora. — A memoir prepared with 

 great care by Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods is valuable 

 to science, not only for the clear and detailed descrip- 

 tion of the fossil plants, but for the discussion upon 

 the geological distribution of the coal-bearing meas- 

 ures of Australia. 



The first notice in regard to the Australian fossil 

 flora was given by Prof. Morris in 1845. In 1847 

 McCoy gave an elaborate paper on the flora and fauna 



of the rocks associated with the coal of Australia, 

 and came to the conclusion that a wide geological 

 interval probably occurred between the consolidation 

 of the fossiliferous beds underlying the coal, and the 

 deposits of the coal-measures, as he found no real 

 connection between them, and as they were referable 

 to widely different geological systems. 



In 1848 Rev. Mr. Clarke dissented from the above 

 conclusions, maintaining that there is no break what- 

 ever between the various beds containing the remains 

 of plants described. His assertion was based upon 

 his own discoveries, and the researches of Jukes and 

 Dana. 



After recording the long discussion between McCoy 

 and Clarke, the progress made on the subject by 

 Daintree, Feistmantel, etc., the author gives a clear 

 exposition of the Australian coal-formations, as far 

 as they are known at the present time, considering 

 not only the remains of plants and animals found in 

 connection with the strata, but the composition of 

 the measures, and the localities where the strata have 

 been examined. He gives the formations in the fol- 

 lowing series : — 



1. Upper Devonian, with three species of plants. 



2. Lower carboniferous, six species, among them 

 three of Lepidodendron. 



3. Permian (?), five species, among them two 

 of Glossopteris. 



4. Newer coal, trias (?) (Newcastle), fourteen spe- 

 cies ; of these, seven of Glossopteris, of which Gloss- 

 opteris Browniana is most common, and also found 

 in No. 3. 



5. Rhaetic. 



6. Upper lias (?), with two species. 



7. Jurassic, with twenty-two species. 



In recording the plants and their distribution, the 

 author describes ninety-three species: twenty-seven 

 are new. The plates are photographs of specimens. 

 The remains of plants are very indistinctly and in- 

 sufficiently represented. — {Proc. Linn. soc. N. S. 

 Wales, viii. 37.) l. l. [520 



ZOOLOGY. 



Reconstruction of objects from microscopic 

 sections. — Born gives an elaborate description of 

 his method of modelling, which is really very simple 

 as well as ingenious. The sections are made with 

 great care, all of the same thickness : they are next 

 drawn with the camera, and the outlines transferred to 

 wax plates, the thickness of which is chosen so as to 

 correspond in relation to the thickness of the sections, 

 as do the outlines to the superficial dimensions of the 

 sections ; or, in other words, each wax plate is cut out 

 so as to represent the actual section eqiially magni- 

 fied in all three dimensions. — {Arch, mikrosk. anat, 

 xxii. 584.) c. s. M. [521 



Preservation of soft tissues. — Dr. Benjamin 

 Sharp called attention to Prof. Semper's mode of pre- 

 paring dried specimens of soft animals, and exhibited 

 a couple of snails as illustrations of the admirable re- 

 sults of the process. The tissues are first hardened 

 by being steeped in chromic acid, which is after- 

 wards thoroughly washed out in water. The speci- 



