326 Obituary. 



In the same manner the author is compelled to state that the 

 supposed cross of M. lamiginosus and montanus, if indeed a 

 hybrid at all, is more likely a hybrid between nemorosus and 

 Villarsii, or between nemorosus and montanus. 



JR. lamiginosus and nemorosus hybrids turn out to be merely 

 forms of M. nemorosus. The criteria employed by the author are 

 not merely found in the features of the plant, but also in the 

 geographical range of the alleged parents ; and by an application 

 of his method, the number of Ranunculus hybrids has been 

 materially reduced. 



Attention has been called to this short but interesting com- 

 munication in the hope that our local botanists will scrutinize the 

 so-called hybrids not only in this but in allied genera with greater 

 care than heretofore, relying not only upon apparent marks of 

 resemblance but giving due weight to the characters drawn from 

 impaired fertility, aud from the circumstantial evidence which 

 comes from an examination of the habitat of the supposed 

 parents. g, l. g. 



15. Corals and Coral Islands ; by James D. Dana. 440 pp. 

 8vo. New York, 1890 (Dodd, Mead & Co.).— A new edition of 

 this work is just now leaving the press. It contains much new 

 matter on the subject, and, in the course of it, a full discussion of 

 the Darwinian and opposing theories of coral reefs. It is illus- 

 trated by several new plates and maps, four of the plates being 

 colored plates of corals from the author's Exploring Expedition 

 Report on Zoophytes, published in 1846. 



OBITUARY. 



Eugene E. Deslongchamps of Chateau Mathieu, Caen, for- 

 merly Professor of Zoology and Paleontology at the Faculty of 

 Sciences, Caen, Calvados, died in December last. He was the son 

 of the celebrated French paleontologist M. Eudes-Deslongchamps, 

 and had published extensively on paleontological subjects, includ- 

 ing a Prodromus of the Teleosaurians of Calvados and " Les 

 Brachiopodes Jurassiques de la France." His " Etudes critiques 

 sur des Brachiopodes nouveaux ou peu connus," and " Le Jura 

 Normand " were in course of serial publication. 



Dr. Melchior Neumayr, Professor of Paleontology in the 

 University of Vienna, died on the 29th of January at the age of 

 forty-four. He was one of the ablest and most active of the 

 corps of Austrian geologists, and had written many important 

 memoirs on Paleontology ; his early death is a great loss to 

 science. • 



Dr. Victor Ritter von Zepharovich, Professor of Mine- 

 ralogy at Prague, and author of numerous papers, chiefly on 

 crystallographic subjects, died on the 24th of February in his 

 60th year. 



Dr. F. von Quenstedt, the veteran paleontologist and mineral- 

 ogist of Tubingen, died December last. He was the author of im- 

 portant works on Paleontology, Mineralogy and Crystallography. 



