22 yyic V]/cst American Scientist. 



sil Fruits and Seeds in the London Clay,' which, so far as pub- 

 lished, consists of 144 pages, with seventeen plates, containing a 

 large number of figures, in which are described thirteen species 

 of nipatites, and many species of interesting and curious genera 

 of extinct fruit and nut bearing trees. 



The predominating types of animals of the period on this con- 

 tinent were dinosaurians, mixed with the remains of crocodiles 

 and many curious forms of animal life which are now extinct. The 

 waters of the Eocene Sea were inhabited by the huge zeuglodon, 

 a cetacean whose fossil remains are abundant in Alabama ; one 

 skeleton was formerly on exhibition at St. Louis, which measured 

 seventy-five feet in length. 



The development and succession of plant life can only be 

 understood by the researches of the vegetable palaeontologist, 

 hence this branch of science is rapidly gaining enthusiastic ex- 

 ponents, and its importance is being recognized by scientists 

 generally. 



There is great diversity of opinion in relation to the migration 

 of plants in former ages. The comparative study of the fossil 

 botany of North America, Europe, Africa and the intervening 

 islands located betvveen these points, has given rise to much dis- 

 cussion among scientists, many of whom argue that the compari- 

 son of the fossil plants of these regions point to a lost continent, 

 which is now submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean, and which, 

 during the miocene period furnished a continuous land surface, 

 over which the various plants, which were common to the now 

 widely separated continents, passed freely ; others claim that the 

 plants migrated from America westward by way of Japan. 



The greatest affinity seems to exist between the fossil plants 

 of the miocene period of E^urope, and those found living on the 

 eastern slope of North America. 



During the miocene, there existed in Europe, many generic 

 types of plants which are now peculiar to America, and during 

 that period the climate of Europe was probably much hotter than 

 now, and supported a heavy growth of vegetation which furnished 

 the material for the extensive lignite beds of that region. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., Jan. 1888. Lorenzo G. Yates. 



Charles H. Marot, the well-known publisher of The Gar- 

 dener s Monthly and Horticulturist, died, afttr a few days' illness, 

 December 21, 1887, in his sixty-second year. 



Asa Gray died at his home at Cambridge, Mass., January 30, 

 1888, in his seventy-eighth year. We had hoped to pay a fur- 

 ther tribute to the memory of this illustrious scholar and genial 

 man, whose death is sincerely mourned throughout the civilized 

 world, and in whom every American botanist has lost a personal 

 friend. His European co-laborers delighted in styling him the 

 'Linnaeus of America.' 



