i 
. 
BOTANY. 421 
ing this time 86 species of birds were noted or taken.” The 
writer’s work was evidently thorough and searching, and the paper 
bears intrinsic marks of trustworthiness. We find nothing to criti- 
cise, but on the contrary would call attention to several inter- 
esting items, notably those relating to the abundance and breeding 
of Bitir us Ludovicianus in this locality, and the occurrence of 
Dendræca Dominica so far north. The author’s views appear pro- 
gressive, as witnessed in Parus atricapillus var. Carolinensis.— 
B E. 
BOTANY. 
Supposep AmerIcaAN Ortcin or Rusus Inxvus.—Our cultivated 
raspberry is an importation from Europe. Our native red rasp- 
berry, R. strigosus, however, is so near it that the specific distinct- 
ness has been in doubt; and specimens from British America and 
the Rocky Mountains certainly occur which a botanist must needs 
refer to R. Ideus itself. ln his studies of the European Rubi, 
Prof. Areschoug (in Botaniska Notiser, 1872, and in a transla- 
tion by himself in Trimen’s Journal of Botany, April, 1873, p. 
108, ete.) makes prominent and important the fact that R. Ideus 
has no near relative, or in other words is the sole raspberry in 
Europe, but in mode of growth, in the bark, etc., as well as in the 
fwit, accords with American species,—with one of them so closely 
that all who have come to the conclusion that species have a his- 
tory must needs infer a community of origin. Areschoug con- 
cludes, accordingly, that “this species did not originally have its 
home in Europe, but its origin is to be found in the east of Asia, 
viz. : Japan and the adjacent countries, or perhaps in North Amer- 
ica.” It is one of the members of that old boreal flora (as we, 
suppose) now mainly East Asiatic and North American, which has 
found its way to, or held its place in, the north of Europe some- 
what exceptionally. Both R. strigosus and R. Ideus inhabit | 
Japan and Mandchuria, and Maximowicz regards them as forms 
of a common species. Prof. Areschoug adopts the now familiar 
idea “ that the Asiatic and North American floras have reciprocally - 
mixed with each other by passing Behring’s Straits and the islands 
. Which in its neighborhood form a bridge between the two conti- 
nents ;’—which is a partial explanation of a problem that has to 
be treated far more generally now that we have reason to believe 
that this flora formerly filled the Arctic zone. He thinks, more- 
+ 
