348 
including in Volume 27 of the Bulletin, 666 
pages and 38 plates, and including Volume 9 
of the Memoirs, with 292 pages and 9 plates. 
The articles printed in the Bulletin have num- 
bered 63, by 48 different persons; 19 articles 
have contained descriptions of new species 
among the higher plants. 
The Club voted to begin the publication of an 
additional monthly of about 12 pages, to in- 
clude botanical notes and jottings, with refer- 
ence to the local flora and to other subjects, 
and to bear the name TYorreya, in honor of Dr. 
John Torrey, founder of the Club. Dr. M. A. 
Howe was made editor. The pressure of more 
extended technical matter upon the pages of 
the Torrey Bulletin has so far developed as to 
crowd out minor and more popular notes, and 
it was thought desirable to provide an op- 
portunity for them by the establishment of 
this new journal, Torreya, which will be sent 
free to all Club members ; to others at one dol- 
lar. 
The officers elected for 1901 include the fol- 
lowing: President, Hon. Addison Brown; Treas= 
urer, Dr. H. B. Ferguson; Recording Secretary, 
Professor HK. S. Burgess ; Editor, Professor L. M. 
Underwood ; Associate Editors, Dr. C. C. Cur- 
tis, Dr. M. A. Howe, Professor F. L. Lloyd, Dr. 
D. T. MacDougal, Dr. H. M. Richards, Miss 
Anna Murray Vail, Dr. N. L. Britton. 
Recent papers read include Mr. J. KE. Kirk- 
wood’s studies on the embryology of the Cucur- 
bitaceae, the types selected for comparison being 
Sicyos angulatus, L., Micrampelis lobats (Michx.) 
Greene, and Mornordica charanta, LL. These 
three types resemble one another in some fea- 
tures of their earlier development ; in each case 
a cup-like structure is formed on the inner side 
of which the ovules are differentiated. In each 
case the normal definite embroyo-sac is a typ- 
ical one. Some ovules of Sicyos exhibited an 
embryo-sac abnormally developed. Endosperm 
is formed soon after fertilization, and seems to 
have the function of digesting the tissue of the 
nucellus and supplying the young embryo with 
food material. No suspensor was found in 
Sicyos, but in Micrampelis and Mornordica it is 
usually formed with two or three cells. 
EDWARD S. BURGESS, . 
Secretary. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 322. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE SUPPOSED TERTIARY SEA OF SOUTHERN 
BRAZIL. 
In an article entitled ‘The History of the 
Neotropical Region,’ published in No. 310 
(Dec. 7, 1900) of Screncz, Dr. H. von 
Ihering, in order to account for certain zoo- 
geographical facts reported by him, proposes 
the somewhat startling hypothesis of a tertiary 
sea separating two faunal sub-regions that he 
denominates ‘ Archiplata’ and ‘ Archamazonia,’ 
and gives the purely zoological evidence as suffi- 
cient, in his opinion, to positively establish the 
existence of this important geological feature. 
As the boundaries of these faunal sub-regions are 
not clearly defined the position of this sea 
remains doubtful, but from the context it is 
clear that it must have tied in with the known 
marine tertiary deposits of the Argentine proy- 
ince of Entre Rios and extended across the 
present mass of Brazilian highlands in such a 
way as to leave in the southern divisiona great 
part, if not all, of the States of Rio Grande do 
Sul and Santa Catharina, that is to say, insome 
part of the present basin of the Rio Uruguay. 
Unfortunately our knowledge of the geo- 
logical structure of this portion of Braziliian 
territory is extremely defective, but enough is 
known to make it certain that a presumably 
pre-tertiary formation stretches entirely across 
the region in question and thus far no geolog- 
ical observations or topographical features are 
known that suggest the slightest suspicion of 
any important break in its continuity. This is 
a formation characterized, like the triassic belt 
of eastern North America which it much re- 
sembles, by dykes, intercallated sheets and out- 
flows of trappean rocks (diabase-porphyrite of 
Rosenbusch) of very uniform mineralogica] 
composition, but very varied physical structure 
and aspect, by means of which it can readily 
be traced. Its geological age is undetermined, 
except thatit is almost certainly post-paleozoic, 
since it overlies permian beds containing the 
Glossopteris flora. From this circumstance and 
from the strong resemblance to the above men- 
tioned North American region, it has generally 
been referred to the triassic, though there is 
nothing to prove that it might not be cretaceous 
