246 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVUl. Xo. 451. 



of Lepidodendron, Calamites and Artisia. 

 Like the concretions, these fossils are gen- 

 erally considerably lighter in weight than the 

 ordinary rock. It is interesting also to note 

 that I found several thin veins of turquoise 

 in the slates of the railroad cut above men- 

 tioned. The same mineral had been pre- 

 viously observed in thin veins in a much more 

 highly crystalline mica schist a few miles dis- 

 tant from this locality. Mr. Franklin has 

 also given me a piece of quartz showing free 

 gold which he says he found in the same 

 slates that carry the fossils, and indeed in 

 the near vicinity of this find, precisely sim- 

 ilar slates, to all appearance, carry quartz 

 veins that have been worked for gold for 

 many years. I collected the fossils along this 

 belt of slates for a distance of a mile or more, 

 and while they are not particularly abundant, 

 I was able in the course of an hour to get 

 fifty or more specimens. 



Mr. David White, to whom the best speci- 

 mens were sent; writes me as follows : " The 

 fossils you sent me are most interesting and 

 important on account of their bearing on the 

 classification of the formation from which 

 they were derived. The biological problem 

 is hardly less interesting to me, for it is but 

 the second lepidophytic cone fragment show- 

 ing microscopical structure that has turned 

 up in our Paleozoics, so far as I am aware. 

 Another larger specimen in hand is from a 

 Carboniferous limestone in the Indian Terri- 

 tory. Your specimens represent several frag- 

 ments of large cones in which the axes, the 

 basal, sporangiferous portions of the spirally 

 arranged bracts, the rhomboidal compressed 

 sporangia and the megaspores are well defined. 

 Precise identification of the material is de- 

 ferred pending the study of thin sections and 

 the determination of certain points regarding 

 the sporangial walls and their attachment to 

 the basal portions of the bracts. It is clear, 

 however, that we have here fragments of 

 cones whose superficial features appear to 

 represent the common Lepidostrohus type of 

 the upper Paleozoic. Beds containing lepido- 

 phytic remains of this type can hardly be 



older than Devonian at earliest, and should 

 not antedate the Middle Devonian. 



" The general jiroportions and aspect of the 

 cones are suggestive of some of the Carbon- 

 iferous forms. Although the internal struc- 

 ture of the strobili may be found to indicate 

 a more highly organized genus than Lepido- 

 strohuSj we may rest assured that the material 

 is not older than the Upper Paleozoic lepido- 

 phytes." 



We can now safely say that the Ocoee of 

 Alabama includes the metamorphosed sedi- 

 ments of more than one of the Paleozoic 

 formations, but it may be doubted if con- 

 clusive paleontological evidence of the age 

 will be found in many cases, since the fossils 

 will inevitably be obliterated in all the more 

 highly crystalline of these schists. 



Eugene A. Smith. 



University of Alabama, 

 June 6, 1903. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



TWO INTERESTING PAEASITIC PLANTS. 



In a recent bulletin of the Kentucky Ex- 

 periment Station, Professor Garman describes 

 two parasitic plants which are considerably 

 out of the ordinary line. They are the broom- 

 rapes of the genus Orohanche. They are small 

 plants related to the figworts, but destitute 

 of any green color. Their roots are attached 

 to the roots of various plants, and in this way 

 they steal the food matters which, were they 

 honest, they would secure for themselves from 

 the soil and air. The first species described, 

 0. ramosa, is parasitic to a considerable ex- 

 tent on tobacco and hemp in Kentucky, doing 

 a good deal of damage. The second is 0. 

 ludoviciana, a native species very common on 

 the western plains. This is also found to be 

 parasitic on the hemp in Kentucky. These 

 two species have been carefully investigated 

 by Professor Garman, and he makes some sug- 

 gestions in regard to their eradication. He 

 finds that is impracticable to remove the para- 

 sites from the growing crop of hemp, bvit it is 

 practicable to remove them from the tobacco 

 crop. It is found impracticable to remove the 

 rape seeds from hemp seed by flotation. Soak- 



