16 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 444. 



The result may appear, to the student who is 

 familiar with current nomenclature, in some 

 cases strange, if not even startling, but the 

 evidence submitted for the entire correctness 

 of adopting the changes from current usage 

 is, in the judgment of the present writer, 

 cogent, and in almost every ease entirely con- 

 vincing. So far as the nomenclatorial ad- 

 justments touch familiar North American 

 species, it may be worth while to point them 

 out. 



The species named cingulata by Drury is 

 referred with its congeners to the genus Herse 

 Oken. The genus Protoparce Burmeister re- 

 ceives into its embrace our species sexta = 

 Carolina Linnaeus, quinquemaculatus = celeus 

 Hiibner, occulta, rustica and irontes. For 

 the species named hageni Grote the genus 

 Isogramma is erected; for cupressi Boisduval 

 the genus Isoparce is proposed and described; 

 and for elsa Strecker the genus Dictyosoma 

 is set up. For Sphinx plebeja Fabricius the 

 authors propose and describe the new genus 

 Atreus. Inasmuch as Atreus is preoccupied 

 in the Arachnida by Koch, the present writer 

 proposes to substitute for it the generic name 

 Atreides and this name will be given to the 

 genus in ' The Moth Book,' which is now 

 going through the press. To the genus 

 Syloicus are referred the species hitherto 

 generally assigned to the genus Sphinx in 

 American lists. Our species modesta Harris, 

 which has recently quite erroneously been re- 

 ferred to the genus Marurriba Moore, is put 

 into the genus Pachysphinx, which is erected 

 for its reception. Inasmuch as the type of 

 the genus Sphinx Linnseus is undoubtedly 

 ocellata Linnaeus (see ' Systema Nature,' Ed. 

 S., p. 489), the American congeners of this 

 species are placed in that genus, and the name 

 Smerinthus Latreille, hitherto almost uni- 

 versally applied to them, is dropped as a 

 synonym. As the type of the genus Sesia, 

 erected by Fabricius, is undoubtedly the spe- 

 cies named tantalus by Linnseus, this generic 

 name is retained for that species and its con- 

 geners. This will no doubt provoke protest 

 from recent authors, but the step is logical, 

 consistent, and in fact the only one which can 



be taken unless the ' law of priority ' is to be 

 set aside and disregarded. The generic name 

 Hcemorrhagia is applied to thyshe Fabricius 

 and its allies, while the genus Macroglossum 

 Scopoli, of which the European stellatarum 

 is the type, is placed in the PhilampelinEe, at 

 a wide remove from Emmorrliagia {Hemaris 

 auctorum), with which it has hitherto com- 

 monly been associated. Our common Morn- 

 ing Sphinx falls under the arrangement 

 adopted into the genus Celerio and appears 

 as Celerio lineata. 



The work deserves the most careful study, 

 and will remain a monument to the learning 

 and the liberality of the distinguished noble- 

 man and his erudite colleague, who have pre- 

 pared it. W. J. H0LL.«fD. 



Caknegie Museum, 

 June 12, 1903. 



Variation in Animals and Plants. By H. M. 



Vernon, M.A., M.D., Fellow of Magdalen 



College, Oxford. New York, Henry Holt 



& Co. 1903. Pp. 415. 



Since Darwin's ' Variation of Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication ' we have had no 

 general resume of the principles of variation. 

 Yet this period has witnessed the rise (and 

 fall) of many speculations on the subject, and 

 for the past decade has yielded the solid fruits 

 of biometric and experimental investigation. 



This important gap is now filled by the 

 well-arranged collection of data to be found 

 in Vernon's book. These data are considered 

 imder three main headings as follows : ' The 

 Facts of Variation ' ; ' The Causes of Varia- 

 tion ' ; and ' Variation in its Relation to Evo- 

 lution.' In the first part some of the results 

 of biometry are given without going into the 

 more abstruse mathematical methods. In con- 

 nection with the discussion of discontinuous 

 variation De Vries's theory is considered in 

 some detail. The. causes of variation are 

 classified as blastogenic and environmental, 

 and several chapters are devoted to the latter 

 class. In the third part the author discusses 

 the action of natural selection on variations, 

 and gives some of the evidence for the in- 

 heritance of acquired characters, based on the 

 cumulative effects of the conditions of life 

 \ 



