534 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1111 



podus riparius is currently identified witli 

 Trogosus or Tillotherium of the Bridger Mid- 

 dle Eocene. If this identification is correct 

 and if it came from the Shark Eiver beds, then 

 these are probably Middle Eocene, possibly 

 later, but not earlier."^ {d) The fact that 

 the Pamunkey embayment or segment filled in 

 seaward during Eocene time till the Caro- 

 lina end of the arc was reached in late Eocene 

 times, would suggest a similar age for the 

 New Jersey beds at the other end of the arc. 



The conclusions from the above outline of 

 facts may be thus briefly summarized: 



(a) The Eocene beds in ISTew Jersey may be 

 in the same trend of the Maryland Eocene 

 outcrops, but this fact has little to do with the 

 relative age of the deposits. 



(&) The known Shark Eiver fauna shov/s 

 very little relationship with the comparatively 

 near-lying Pamunkey faunas; stiU less with 

 any known lower or basal Eocene, Midway 

 fauna. 



(c) The general aspect of the Shark River 

 fauna with its many species closely allied to 

 or identical with Claibornian forms would 

 seem quite sufficient in itself to cause these 

 New Jersey beds to be referred to a horizon 

 ahove instead of heloiv the mass of Pamunkey 

 deposits. 



(d) Data from other paleontologic sources 

 are of a questionable nature, but so far as they 

 go they seem to support the writer's conten- 

 tion. 



Gilbert D. Harris 

 Paieontological Laboratory, 

 Cornell TJniversitt, 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



a phytophthora on oats 

 While in the recently started experiment 

 garden at Stanford University on February 

 10, I noticed on the leaves of volunteer oats 

 markings such as I had not seen before. 



On examining the material in the labora- 

 tory, the markings were found to be due to a 

 species of PhytopMhora. The markings may 

 appear as spots or as stripes along one or both 

 margins of the leaf, or as a stripe down the 

 B Matthew, ex lit. 



center. The diseased areas become yellowish, 

 and then whitish when conidia are abundant. 

 Later these areas, which sometimes have a 

 water-soaked appearance, become brown or 

 reddish-brown, and the parts shrivel and 

 dry up. 



The short, hyaline, imbranched conidio- 

 phores (4-5 X 15-300 jx) issue from the sto- 

 mata on both sides of the leaves and usually 

 bear a single ovate or obpyriform conidium. 

 The conidia are quite large (.30^2 X 42- 

 78 n, occasionally one is much smaller) and 

 fall away with a small part of the conidiophore 

 attached. They germinate by producing nu- 

 merous zoospores. Chlamydospores were 

 found crowded together in the tissues of some 

 of the older diseased areas. They were glob- 

 ular, hyaline or very light yellow, some thin- 

 walled and others thick-walled, and 12-18 /a 

 in diameter. In some leaves oospores were 

 also found abundantly. The oogonia were 

 thin-walled and 30-39 yu, in diameter. The 

 globular oospores were 27-30 fx in diameter, 

 the epispore being smooth, hyaline or light 

 yellow, and about 2 /x thick. 



The species is certainly very similar to 

 PhytopMhora Colocasim Eac. on the taro 

 (Colocasia esculenta) in Java, India and 

 Formosa, but a more extended study is neces- 

 sary to determine its specific rank. It has been 

 foimd in several fields about Stanford Univer- 

 sity and by the state highway near Mayfield, 

 California. As a large percentage of the 

 plants were infected in some localities, the 

 fungus may become of considerable economic 

 importance. James McMukphy 



Stanford University, 

 February 17, 1916 



ENDURANCE OF THE PORPOISE IN CAPTIVITY 



The New York Aquarium lost last year a 

 most attractive exhibit, the bottle-nosed por- 

 poise (Tursiops truncatus) which has lived in 

 the large central pool of the building for more 

 than twenty-one months. 



The cause of its death was a mixed infec- 

 tion, which in a few days attacked every part 

 of its skin, covering the smooth glistening sur- 

 face with unsightly pustules. This infection 



