150 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 291. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



A SHORT time ago two tusks of an African ele- 

 phant were noted in Science, weigliing respec- 

 tively 224 and 239 pounds. Messrs. Tiffany & 

 Co., in whose rooms these tusks are now on 

 exhibition, have kindly given the following 

 measurements of these huge tusks : Length 10 

 feet and J inches and 10 feet 3J inches ; cir- 

 cumference 23 inches and 24i inches. Sir 

 Samuel Baker gives the weights of the two 

 largest tusks that came under his observation 

 as 188 and 172 pounds, but says that the aver- 

 age weight of a pair of tusks of the African 

 elephant is 140, one being usually about ten 

 pounds heavier than the other. 



The weight of the tusks of the extinct Elephas 

 ganesa is unknown, but so far as the dimensions 

 can be taken from a cast the measurements are 

 as follows : Length 12 feet 4 inches, circum- 

 ference 2 feet 3 inches. 



One of the largest, if not the largest, of Mam- 

 moth tusks is one brought from Alaska by Mr. 

 Jay Beach of Oakland, Cal. This is 12 feet 10 

 inches long and 22J inches in circumference 

 and weighs about 200 pounds. The average 

 Mammoth tusk is from 7 to 9 feet long and 60 

 to 80 pounds in weight. 



The tusks of the Mastodon seem as a rule to 

 be a little more robust than those of the Mam- 

 moth and to taper more rapidly, a large tusk is 

 9 feet 4 inches long and 23 inches in circum- 

 ference. 



A large deposit of fossil bones has been found 

 near Kimmswick, Mo., and excavations are 

 being made by a company formed for that pur- 

 pose. Many bones of the Mastodon have been 

 exhumed as well as those of Bison and other 

 animals. The locality is thought to have been 

 an ancient salt lick about which the animals 

 became mired as at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. 



A miner has filed a claim in Death Valley, 

 California, for the purpose of excavating the 

 bones of three Mastodons which were discovered 

 in the spring of this year and another claim 

 has been taken out for mining a Pliocene whale 

 in southern California. 



De. J. L. WoRTMAN recently called my at- 

 tention to the fact that text-books of compar- 

 ative anatomy state that the lachrymal bone is 



wanting in pinnipeds, at the same time saying 

 that his own belief was that examination of 

 good specimens would show that this bone was 

 present in young animals. Material in the U. 

 S. National Museum enabled me to complete- 

 ly verify Dr. Wortman's prediction, for the 

 lachrymal is present in fcetal or very young 

 fur seals, Callorhinus, although at an early date 

 it fuses so completely with the maxillary that, 

 as a rule, all traces of it are lost within a 

 month or six weeks after birth. 



The lachrymal is a thin, scale-like bone, ap- 

 plied to the posterior face of the orbital portion 

 of the maxillary and in a small foetus there is a 

 distinct lachrymal process and lachrymal fora- 

 men, the bone projecting slightly beyond the 

 maxillary. At this stage the growth of the 

 lachrymal is arrested and the maxillary soon 

 comes to project beyond it, while later on the 

 two bones fuse and all trace of the lachrymal 

 is lost. The same thing evidently occurs in 

 Otaria and Eumetopias, as in skulls of the young 

 of these two genera the lachrymal is indicated 

 by a suture which is completely obliterated in 

 adult animals. F. A. Lucas. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



GENEHA OF AMERICAN GRASSES. 



Professor Lamson-Scribnee, Agrostologist 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 has issued as Bulletin No. 20, a useful little 

 book of about two hundred pages, bearing the 

 title of 'American Grasses, III,' containing 

 descriptions of the tribes and genera of the 

 grasses of North America. Each one of the 

 187 genera is illustrated by drawings of the 

 plant with enlarged details of spikelets, flowers, 

 .grains, etc. These genera are distributed among 

 the thirteen commonly recognized tribes as fol- 

 lows : Maydeae, 4 ; Andropogoneae, 9 ; Oster- 

 damiae, 4 ; Tristegineae, none ; Paniceae, 11 

 Oryzeae, 7 ; Phalarideae, 3 ; Agrostideae, 26 

 Aveneae, 8 ; Chlorideae, 13 ; Festuceae, 40 

 Hordeae, 11 ; Bambuseae, 1. Ample keys 

 make it easy to distinguish the tribes and 

 genera, and the descriptions of both are full 

 and apparently well drawn. This volume 

 closes with a bibliography of works cited on its 

 pages, and an index of Latin and English 

 names. 



