560 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 118 



new species of Roptronia. ' The type was col- 

 lected by Mr. Garman in Kentucky. 



Mr. Howard read a paper entitled ' On some 

 parasites of Cocoidse,' in which he referred to 

 the extraordinary geographical distribution of 

 certain of the forms. Aspidiotiphagus citrinus 

 (Craw), for example, has been found in many 

 localities of the United States ; at Grenada, 

 B. W. I.; Portici, Italy; Punduloya and Kandy, 

 Ceylon; Hong Kong and Amoy, China; Tam- 

 sui, Formosa; Yokohama, Japan; Newlands, 

 Cape Colony; Brisbane, Queensland; Adelaide, 

 South Australia; and Honolulu, Hawaii. He 

 also showed that Arrhenophagus chionaspidis 

 (Aurivillius) has an almost equally universal 

 distribution, and announced the finding of the 

 hitherto unknown male of this species in some 

 material reared by Mr. Koebele at Macao. 



A paper by Mr. W. J. Fox, entitled ' The 

 species of the genus Pepsis found in America 

 north of Mexico,' was read by title. 



A synopsis of a paper entitled ' Notes on bred 

 parasitic Hymenoptera, with descriptions of 

 new species,' by Geo. Dimmock and Wm. H. 

 Ashmead, was presented by Mr. Ashmead. 

 L. O. HOWAED, 



Secretary. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SECTION OP 

 GEOLOGY, MAECH 15, 1897. 



The first communication of the evening was 

 by Mr. Heinrich Ries, entitled ' Mineralogical 

 Notes.' Mr. Ries spoke of some Allanite 

 crystals with new faces ; also of some large 

 crystals of fibrous gypsum from Newcastle, 

 Wyoming ; also exhibited some large Children- 

 ite crystals from Maine, and some Amphibole 

 crystals with many terminal faces from Vir- 

 ginia. He also spoke of some Pseudomorphs 

 of gold after Sylvanite from Cripple Creek, 

 Colorado. The finding of a new Beryl crystal, 

 with an unusually large number of terminal 

 faces in New York City, was also noted. 



The second paper of the evening was written 

 by Mr. Herbert Bolton, entitled ' The Lan- 

 cashire Coal Field of England,' and read in ab- 

 stract by President Stevenson. The paper 

 spoke of the geographic conditions of the Lan- 

 cashire coal field and its neighborhood, of the 

 extent and quality of the coal and of the age 



of the structural movements which had caused 

 the present geological characteristics in the 

 coal area. A careful correlation was made be- 

 tween the Coal-measures of this field and the 

 deposits of the United States. Distribution of 

 the fauna and flora and their character was 

 taken up in some detail, and it was shown that 

 in the Lower Coal-measures the life is mostly 

 marine, in the Middle Coal-measures of fresh 

 and blackish origin, and in the Upper Coal- 

 measures that the fauna was scarce. When 

 published, this paper will be a valuable contri- 

 bution to the literature of coals and will be of 

 great assistance to workers in America in their 

 endeavors to correlate the deposits on the two 

 sides of the water. 



The third paper of the evening was by Mr. 

 Stuart Weller, of Chicago University, entitled 

 ' The Batesville Sandstone of Arkansas,' and 

 abstracted by Mr. Gilbert van Ingen. The 

 paper entered into some detail regarding the 

 Batesville section and the fauna of the Bates- 

 ville sandstone in that section. Of the inverte- 

 brates thirty species have been found, of which 

 eleven point to the St. Louis age of the sand- 

 stone, six to the Kaskaskia age, while thirteen 

 are of indeterminate value. On account of 

 the greater abundance of the numbers of speci- 

 mens of the second group and from strati- 

 graphic evidence as well, it is probable that the 

 sandstone belongs in the base of the Kaskaskia 

 group and is the same as the Aux Vasa lime- 

 stone of southern Illinois. This paper gives 

 the data wherewith to correlate the Mississip- 

 pian section with the section about the Ozark 

 Hills. 



Richard B. Dodge, 

 Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Diseases of Plants induced by Cryptogamic Para- 

 sites. Karl Feblherr VON TuBEUF. London, 

 New York and Bombay, Longmans, Green 

 &Co. 1897. Pp. xv+598. 



The Fern Collector's Handbook and Herbarium. 

 Sadie F. Price. New York, Henry Holt & 

 Co. 1897. 72 figures. 



Electricitdt direkt aus Kohle. Etienne db 

 Fedoe. Wien, Pest, Leipzig, A. Hartleben. 

 Pp. vi+304. Mark 3. 



