August 15, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



273 



the Assyrian inscriptions were deciphered, and 

 Professor Vaughan gave the results of a long 

 series of experiiaents made during the past 

 two years by his students and himself in 

 endeavoring to ascertain the nature of the 

 specific bacterial toxins. An abstract of this 

 paper will be published in Science. 



Frederick C. jSTewcombe. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 SIX NEW SPECIES. 



To THE Edxtoe op Science: There has just 

 come to my attention a copy of the ' Ninth An- 

 nual Report of the Ohio State Academy of 

 Science,' for the year 1900. Although appar- 

 ently published in 1901, it contains one article 

 that is still deserving of wider notice ! This 

 is a paper on ' Six new Species, Including two 

 New Genera, of Fossil Plants,' by H. Herzer, 

 the reading of which is calculated to cause 

 mixed reflections, alike to the student of Eng- 

 lish and the paleobotanist. His first species, 

 quoted entire, reads as follows: 'Palseophycus 

 clavifrons. Nov. Spec. A much ramifying 

 marine weed, shooting at once at sharp angles 

 a number of branches, which at distant inter- 

 vals multiply again in the same manner. 

 Each branch seems a barren, rugged cylinder, 

 beginning at its outgrowth thin as twine, then 

 assuming a thickening of | inch, giving the 

 rather lengthy branches a club-like form. — 

 Sandstone flagging, Harmar Hill, Marietta, 

 Ohio." 



Of his 'Caulopteris magnifica, Nov. Spec.,' 

 he says: "Among the numerous silicified re- 

 mains of plants of the carboniferous age, from 

 Athens County, Ohio, that have been liberated 

 out of the Mahoning sandstone, we find quite a 

 variety of species grouping under different 

 genera, which are by their internal organiza- 

 tion closely allied to each other. The great 

 interest in these thus preserved plants is pre- 

 sented in the minute preservation of internal 

 structure by which their classification is great- 

 ly facilitated and at once obvious. * * * 

 Our species here is a well-preserved, magnifi- 

 cent treefern, once beautifying the unbroken 

 wilds of its time"!! 



" Psaronius juneeus, Nov. Spec. As has 



been shown in one of our former meetings, 

 Psaronius is not a conical stalk of aerial roots, 

 enclosing the base of tree-ferns, but is a plant 

 per se. We present the one before us as a 

 new species, having in its central arrangement 

 the structure of a fern or a Sigillaria or like- 

 ly a Lepidodendron ; for all these characters 

 are closely allied to one another ; but also being 

 remarkably made up of cellular fascicles, en- 

 closing like individuals that center and join- 

 ing one another so densely, as to have no inter- 

 stinct tissue between them. Each fascicle is 

 throughout the whole trunk, which attains the 

 thickness of IJ in., as thin and slender as bul- 

 rushes, from three sixteenths to one eighth 

 inch thick, crowding each other in various 

 angles. In each fascicle is a star-like center 

 of coarse woody cells, surrounded by small cir- 

 cular cells. The main center two inches in 

 diameter and being a pithy cylinder, has the 

 same long vermicular woody bundles as are 

 common to the above mentioned trees." 



This is undoubtedly a new species, if not 

 indeed a new order. The absence of 'inter- 

 stiiict tissue' settles that! 



The first mentioned of the so-called new gen- 

 era (Cystiphycus) is introduced by the lucid 

 statement that ' Like many other f ucoids this 

 species had the same mode of growth.' The 

 other may be quoted entire. " Nodophycus 

 thallyformis [sic], a New Genus. The fronds 

 of this seaweed must have been very large. I 

 find them covering large slabs of sandstone. 

 The nodose elevations of the frond are from 

 one third to one half inch apart and look as if 

 a soft thallus had spread over peas " ! 



The first mentioned ' new ' genus is incor- 

 rectly formed, etymologically, and both gen- 

 eric and specific words in the other are hybrid 

 Latin and Greek combinations. Can anything 

 be worse? 



I submit that not one of these descriptions 

 is adequate or even intelligible, and, with the 

 possible exception of the Caulopteris, the fig- 

 ures are as bad. Those illustrating 'Palw- 

 ophycus clavifrons ' and ' Nodophycus thally- 

 formis' might, with equal propriety, be used 

 to illustrate a paper on meteorites. 



In the name of paleobotanists I protest 

 against such solecisms as these being con- 



