oe 
ae 
ZOOLOGY. . 423 
species should be met with in this neighborhood, or even in the 
country, is not extraordinary, since these shrubs are propagated 
from cuttings or slips. “The published figures of r viridissima 
are of the long-stamened sort. Siebold and Zuccarini describe the 
long-styled form of F. suspensa, the counterpart of the one we 
have, but their plate represents bath; so that the me of dimor- 
phism is pretty well made out.—A. Gray. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Tue Diminvtion oF Foop Fisnes. —In our recent abstract of the 
„annual report of the Commissioners of Fisheries of this State, 
reference was made to a letter addressed to the Commissioners by 
Prof. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution and United States 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, in answer to one sent by 
them asking his opinion as to the probable cause of the rapid 
diminution of the supply of good fishes on the coast of New. Eng- 
land, and especially of Maine. The letter is of such an inter- 
esting character that we subjoin it nearly entire : — 
‘ We are all very well aware,” writes Prof. Baird, “ that fifty 
or more years ago, the streams and rivers of New ngland, empty- 
ing into the ocean, were crowded and almost blockaded, at certain 
oc pro 
Swarmed to an almost inconceivable extent in the same localities, 
and later in the year descended to the sea in immense schools. It 
was during this period that the deep-sea fisheries of the coast were 
also of great extent and value. Cod, haddock, halibut, and the 
line fish o generally, occupied the fishing grounds close to the shore, 
and could be ca ught from small open boats, ample fares being read- 
ily taken within a fest distance of the fishermen’s abode, without 
the necessity o orting to distant seas. Now, however, the 
State of thins is apera different. The erection of impassable 
dams upon the waters of the New England States, and especially 
of the State of Maine, has prevented the upward course of the 
anadromous fishes referred to, and their numbers have dwindled 
away, until at present sa are almost unknown in many otherwise 
most favorable localiti 
the cod and other deep-sea species near our coasts ; but it was not 
Until quite recently that the relationships between the two series 
. 
