100 
or yellow, I think I should have become con- 
scious of the fact. It seemed to be followed by 
a faint line of light about halfas long as its own 
body, From a point about 20 degrees south- 
west of the zenith it fell rather swiftly in a 
direction that would have brought it to the 
horizon at a point very nearly northwest (mag- 
netic) of my position. I was unable, however, 
to follow it all the way to the horizon on ac- 
count of the trees between my house and your 
cottage behind which it disappeared without 
having lost either its shape or its brightness. 
The time occupied by its fall was not more, I 
think, than three seconds. If you will hold 
the accompanying diagram above your head 
like a celestial chart and look up at it, facing 
the west, you will get an approximate idea of 
of the meteor’s course as it appeared to me. 
The sun was shining brightly, but it did not 
overcome the brilliancy of the aerolite. 
Sincerely yours, 
GEORGE KENNAN. 
BRETON CorraGE, BADDECK, C. B., 
Nova Scorra, June 26, 1897. 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
WHAT ARE STIPULES ? 
‘THE Nature and Origin of Stipules,’ by A. A. 
Tyler, A. M. Presented to the Faculty of 
Pure Science of Columbia University in partial 
requirement for the degree of Doctor of Phil- 
osophy. Annals of the New York Academy 
of Sciences, Vol. X., New York, 1897, pp. 
1-49, pl. i.-iii. Also separate: Contributions 
from the Department of Botany of Columbia 
University, No. 119. 
This is, without doubt, the most considerable 
contribution that has been made to the vexed 
question of the nature of stipules; at least it is 
safe to say that it comes much nearer to a solu- 
tion of that question than anything that has 
hitherto been brought forward. Although as- 
suredly not the last word that will be said on 
the subject, nevertheless the light that had 
already been shed upon it by a long train of 
previous investigations placed the author in a 
position to treat it from an advanced stand- 
point. 
Nearly half the paper, and that the first half, 
is devoted to summing up, in chronological 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. VI. No. 133. 
order, the views that have been expressed and 
the conclusions that have been reached; but the 
paper is by no means a mere literary effort. It 
is itself the result of a series of special re- 
searches on the part of the author. Indeed, it 
may be looked upon as a new departure, since 
his investigations have proceeded from an al- 
most entirely different standpoint from those of 
previous authors. He has made use of their 
labors and failures rather as a means of warn- 
ing than as guides to his work. 
Probably the most suggestive results that had 
been reached were those which, within the past 
decade, have been furnished by paleontology, — 
and while he has singularly omitted to mention 
the researches of Saporta and Marion,* he has 
not left out of account those that have been 
made in America.t It is not too much to say 
that these paleontological discoveries have 
added more to our acquaintance with the true 
nature of stipules than the combined morpho- 
logical studies of previous authors. If I do not 
mistake, it was from attention to paleontological 
considerations as thus brought out, that Mr. 
Tyler was led to adopt the method of his thesis, 
a method which had been wholly neglected 
hitherto, and yet the only one that seems to 
promise ultimate success in the solution of the 
problem. 
The earliest of the above mentioned papers 
called attention to certain remarkable basilar 
expansions that occur in leaves of Platanus 
basilobata, a fossil species from the Fort Union 
* Evolution du Régne Végétal, Pt. II., Phanéro- 
games. Paris, 1885. See especially Vol. I., pp. 201— 
223; Vol. II., pp. 9-44. 
t The Paleontologic History of the Genus Platanus 
by Lester F. Ward; Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XI., 
1888, pp. 39-42, pl. xvii.-xxii, Origin of the Plane- 
Trees, by Lester F. Ward; Am. Nat., Vol. XXIV., 
September, 1890, pp. 797-810, pl. xxviii. Flora of 
the Dakota Group, by Leo Lesquereux; Monogr. U. 
8. Geol. Surv., Vol. XVII., pp. 65, 231, 232, 254. 
Wing-like Appendages on the Petioles of Liriophyl- 
lum populoides Lesq. and Lviriodendron alatum 
Newb., with Descriptions of the Latter, by Arthur 
Hollick; Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. XXI., No. 11, 
November 24, 1894, pp. 467-471, pl. ccexx., ecxxi. 
Appendages to the Petioles of Liriodendra, by Arthur 
Hollick; Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. XXIII., No. 6, 
June, 1896, pp. 249-250, pl. cclxix., cclxx. 
