114 General Notes. [ February, 
vesca is descended from Castanea atavia. No. 47. On the marine 
Phanerogams of the Indian Ocean and Archipelago, by Naumann. (An 
account of the flowering plants found in salt water during the cruise of the 
Gazelle.) Nos. 48, 49. Contributions to the history of the development 
of the Sporogonium in liverworts, by Kienitz-Gerloff. In reports of 
societies: Berlin: Ascheron on the distribution of the sexes of Stratiotes, 
a plant allied to Sagittaria. (The pistillate and staminate plants are 
for the most part widely separated.) Nos. 50, 51. On the development 
of cambium, by Dr. Velten. (Examining N. J. C. Miiller’s views.) 
In reports of societies: Brandenburg: Braun on the morphological 
nature of the tendrils in the gourd family (regarding them as leaves, 
and in divided tendrils each division as one leaf). Berlin: Brefeld on 
conjugating fungi. 
Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, lxx. i. 
Contributions to the morphology and biology of .yeast, by Emil Schu- 
macher, of Lucerne (detailing.experiments to determine the influence of 
low temperature, etc., upon the life of the yeast plant). Lxx. ii. Investi- 
gations respecting the occurrence of lignin in the tissues of plants, by 
A. Burgerstein. (Experiments with aniline sulphate, by which he deter- 
miped the absence of lignin in funge and alge. It is found in a very 
few plant-hairs, in all wood-cells, but never in cambium. Many bast-cells 
have considerable lignin, but the sieve-cells hardly any. The most curi- 
ous observation was that the walls of pith-cells in many plants are ligni- 
fied, and the medullary rays also. 
ZOOLOGY. 
BreepinG Rance or tHe SNow-Birp.— During a flying visit paid 
to the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, the latter part of June, I 
found Junco hyemalis very common on the summits, at an altitude of 
forty-five hundred feet. A nest containing three eggs, about to hatch, 
was discovered within a stone’s throw of the house. It was built on the 
ground, in a hole in a slight embankment. The mother-bird fluttered in 
sight within a few feet of me, of course rendering the identification ab- 
solute ; besides, the birds were plentiful in the vicinity, and well known 
to the most obtuse of the aborigines of this primeval region. 
southern extension of the species during the breeding season has only 
lately become known. Professor Cope mentions it in a former paper in 
the Naruratist, and I have no doubt that he is right in crediting the 
species with a breeding range to the mountains of Georgia. This cir- 
cumstance of its distribution explains the sudden appearances and disap- 
pearances of the species, according to the weather, during the colder por- 
tions of the year, at low levels. It can readily change its summer for its 
winter ubode, and conversely, by a few hours’ flight. 
While on this subject, let me allude to the slip of the pen, or mo- 
mentary aberration of mind, I don’t know which, that led me to give the 
