542 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
Just as Darwin reasoned, that in the early history of the horse, it must have hadi 
three toes, and that the two splint bones were the rudiments of those toes. The 
Oregon beds prove Darwin to be right, as horses with three toes have been found- 
Among the carnivora, over ten species of dogs and tigers were discovered. 
One large dog had terrible fangs, longer than a tiger’s, that were sharply serrate 
edged like a shark’s. Another peculiar species had a shoulder on the lower 
canine, against which the point of the upper struck. This large number of 
carnivorous beasts show that herbivora were abundant, which we found to be the 
case. 
Although these beds have been explored a great many years, we found new 
species and a number of new genera. The first year I worked in the beds I got 
thirteen new species. They will all be described and figured in a work by 
Professor Cope on the Miocene of Oregon, to be published by the Government. 
Among the gnawers or rodents great numbers of species were found, from 
a small mouse to a beaver. I found fossil bones bearing the marks of these 
little rodents’ teeth. 
Hard-shelled turtles were the only reptiles found: they varied in size from 
six inches in diameter to two feet. Fresh water wa#os and other shells were 
abundant. The miocene beds of Oregon extend over the greater part of the 
eastern part of the State. Only the John Day and Crooked river have been 
explored. Rich harvests await the future explorer. 
CORRESEON DEN CE: 
SCIENCE LETTER FROM PARIS. 
November 20, 1880. 
M. Deherain, in studying the origin of carbon in plants, points out the fact, 
that the seed retains the larger part of its reserved food for the development of 
the leaves, to enable them to take in at the earliest period a supply of carbonic 
acid. But if the seed germinates in a sterile soil, the root will become immeas- 
urably long, just as when a plant vegetates in obscurity, the stem lengthens out 
in search of light, at the expense of the leaves, which, deprived of lights, can 
perform no function. Chlorophyll, or the green coloring matter of plants, con- 
sists according to M. Frémy, of two different susbtances, yellow and green; 
chlorophyll proper, is a highly agatized body, as is evident from the vigor with 
which wheat or grass in certain parts of a field accidently overmanured, spring 
up in rank green tufts during spring. Place a plant of tobacco ina poor soil, 
the leaves will commence to turn yellow, but add a dose of nitrogenous manures, 
and they will rapidly become a deep green. Light, whether it proceed from the 
