516 Chronicles of Science. [July* 



obtained from the island of Bornholm, were the first really authentic 

 examples which had reached this country. 



Fishes have not been neglected, and a memoir of those of Cochin, 

 on the Malabar coast of India, has been read by Mr. F. Day. This 

 gentleman has obtained in this locality 210 species, of which about 

 one-tenth were previously unknown. The indefatigable researches of 

 Mr. J. Yate Johnson, in Madeira, have also been again rewarded by a 

 new form of trichiuroid fishes, which he calls Nealotus tripes. 



The land- and fresh- water shells of the Zambesi and Lake Nyassa 

 have been the subject of a communication from Dr. Kirk. The land 

 shells of the Malay Archipelago, collected by Mr. Wallace, have been 

 described by him, in conjunction with Mr. H. Adams ; and Dr. P. P. 

 Carpenter has communicated three papers upon the shells of Panama, 

 Mazatlan, and the West Tropical region of North America. In addition 

 to these papers, interesting communications have also been read by 

 Dr. Crisp, Dr. Murie, Dr. W. Peters, Dr. Hartlaub, and other eminent 

 Zoologists. 



XI. SCIENCE IN CANADA. 



Botany. — Filices. In the ' Canadian Naturalist and Geologist ' we 

 find a Synopsis of Canadian ferns and filicoid plants, by George 

 Lawson, Ph. D., L.L.D., and a paper on the same subject, serving as a 

 supplement to the former, by David E. McCord, B.A. The whole 

 number of Canadian species that have been enumerated is seventy- 

 four, of which eleven are doubtful. Of the sixty- three certainly 

 known, fifty-eight are inhabitants of the Northern United States, 

 thirty-eight of the Southern States, and thirty-six are found in 

 Europe. Dr. Lawson gives a list of the seventy-four species, showing 

 their occurrence in Canada, the Northern States, the Southern States, 

 Europe, Continental and British, and within the Arctic Circle, respec- 

 tively. The table is followed by a description of the species, with 

 the localities where they have been observed. Mr. McCord's list 

 contains additional localities in Lower Canada, those given by Dr. 

 Lawson being chiefly Upper Canadian. Amongst well-known British 

 ferns occurring in the Colony, we observe that Polypodium vulgare is 

 common in Lower Canada, and widely distributed, though not very 

 common, in Upper Canada. Pteris aquilina, Athyrium filix-foemina, 

 and Lastrea dilatata are common in both provinces ; and Lastrea 

 cristata, Woodsia Uvensis, Osmunda regalis (represented by the var. 

 /3 spectabilis), and Botrychium Lunaria, are not uncommon. Asple- 

 nium trichomanes, and Polystichum augulare are rare, whilst Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare, Asplenium viride, and Ophioglossum vulgatum 

 have each been found in one locality only, the first in Upper Canada, 

 the two latter in Lower Canada. On the other hand, we miss our 

 British Aspidium Oreopteris, Lastraea filix-mas (recently, however, 

 found on the Rocky Mountains), Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, and 

 Blechnum boreale. Of the seventy-four species of filices described, 



