June 17, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



921 



Monocotyledons,' the argument being in sub- 

 stance that which she contributed to a dis- 

 cussion of the subject at the Southport meet- 

 ing of the British Association. It is claimed 

 that the monocotyledons are descended from 

 an ancestry with two cotyledons and that the 

 single cotyledon which distinguishes them is 

 a member formed by a fusion of the pair. 

 Isabel S. Smith has studied ' The Nutrition 

 of the Egg in Zamia/ showing that the so- 

 called nuclei reported to pass through the 

 jacket-cells into the egg are the ends of 

 haustoria sent out by the cytoplasm of the egg 

 into the jacket-cells. Mary E. Opperman has 

 published ' A Contribution to the Life History 

 of Aster' in which she treats of the develop- 

 ment of the embryo sac and fertilization. 

 Among the interesting points is a discovery of 

 an antipodal cell fusing as an egg and about 

 to be fertilized. J. Cardot and I. Theriot pub- 

 lish their second paper on ' The New or Un- 

 recorded Mosses of North America,' describ- 

 ing numerous new forms. B. E. Livingston 

 writes on the 'Physical Properties of Bog 

 Water,' and from tests he has made draws the 

 conclusion that bog waters do not have an ap- 

 preciably higher concentration of dissolved 

 siibstances than do the streams and lakes of 

 the same region. J. N. Kose publishes a 

 biographical sketch with portrait of the late 

 William M. Canby. Francis Eamaley pub- 

 lishes a short preliminary statement of ' The 

 Anatomy of the Cotyledons ' in Cruciferse and 

 Eanunculacese. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



At the 15Yth meeting, held on May 11, Mr. 

 G. O. Smith presented a paper on ' Strati- 

 graphic Problems in the Northern Cascades.' 



In western Washing-ton, the Eocene was 

 characteristically an epoch of sedimentations, 

 just as the Miocene was one of vulcanism. 

 The Eocene sediments are economically im- 

 portant by reason of the coals of the Puget 

 formation on the west slope of the Cascades, 

 and of the Koslyn formation on the eastern 

 slope. 



Study of the Eocene formations has shown 

 that the sediments were contributed from land 

 areas possessing topographic diversity, and 

 that most of the Eocene basins were neither 

 permanent nor extensive. In the survey of the 

 Snoqualmie quadrangle additional facts were 

 collected concerning the relief of the pre- 

 Eocene surface and the conditions of the 

 Eocene sedimentation. Six Eocene forma- 

 tions were recognized and mapped — three be- 

 ing purely sedimentary and the others volcanic 

 in part at least. The maps and sections of 

 the folio which is in preparation will exhibit 

 two main features; the importance of the 

 present areas of pre-Eocene rocks as struc- 

 tural axes at the beginning of the Eocene, and 

 the variability introduced into the Eocene 

 section by the eruption of two distinct types 

 of lava from different centers at different 

 times. The structural axes in this region 

 have a general northwest-southeast trend, 

 which is paralleled by the trend of the pre- 

 Eocene schistosity as well as the axes of post- 

 Miocene folding and faulting and the later 

 post-peneplain warping in the adjacent Ellens- 

 burg quadrangle. 



The principal fact presented in this paper 

 was that the present ridges of old schist and 

 granite determined in large measure the 

 boundaries of Eocene basins and retained 

 their structural importance throughout the 

 whole of the very eventful Tertiary period. 



The next paper, by J. E. Spurr, was entitled, 

 ' Faulting at Tonopah, Nevada.' In a small 

 area, containing about six square miles, in 

 which the most important mines and prospects 

 are situated, the rocks are a complex of 

 Tertiary volcanic rocks, lavas and tuffs, with 

 a formation of lake-deposited white tuff beds. 

 With the exception of some of the latest lavas, 

 all these rocks have been violently and intri- 

 cately faulted. The latest rocks are chiefly 

 silieious rhyolite and silicious dacite volcanic 

 necks, the plugs of late Tertiary volcanoes. 

 The faults do not run into them, and the rela- 

 tions indicate that most of the faulting was 

 accomplished before, during and immediately 

 after the intrusion of the necks. The faulting 

 is especially clustered around the dacitic necks, 

 and examination of the fault blocks shows 



