444 General Notes. [June, 
ARENARIA GRCENLANDICA NEAR MIDDLETOWN, Conn.—I would 
also report Arenaria grenlandica Spring., as occurring in this 
' vicinity. I have observed it in two places, both summits of rocks. 
It appears to grow in the very shallow bed of soil that collects 
on exposed rocky knobs, and is very abundant in these two nar- 
row limits. The flowers are larger and the plants more luxuriant 
than in specimens from Greenland that I have seen, yet its iden- 
tity is undoubted, and on the authority of Professors Gray and 
Eaton. The rocks on which it is found, occur on hills that rise 
two hundred feet or thereabouts, above the general level of the 
surrounding country.—Henry L. Osborn, Wesleyan University. 
BoranicaL Notes.—In the Botanical Gazette, for April, Mr. I. 
C. Martindale discusses the germination and growth of the para- 
site, Orabanche ramosa, and M. E. Jones records his observations 
on remarkable forms of Triticum repens. Grevillea for March 
notices New York fungi. According to Prillieux, the roots of 
Hartwegia ramosa are negatively heliotropic, lengthening both by 
day and by night, due as he thinks, to the increased amount of 
growth on the illuminated sides. We also learn from the Four- 
nal of the Royal Microscopical Society for April, that a luminous 
fungus has been reported from the Andaman Islands; it is an 
agaric of small size, but exceeding in brilliancy anything which 
has hitherto been observed. The influence of light on the 
movements of Desmids, has been investigated by E. Stahl, who 
finds that the cell of Closteriunt shows a tendency to place its 
longer axis in the direction of the rays of light, and that there is 
also a polarity between the two halves of the cell, in consequence 
of which, one is attracted towards, and the other driven away 
from the source of light. There is also a slow movement of the 
individual along the bottom inthe direction of the source of ligbt. 
When the light is very intense, the conditions are reversed, and 
the cell places itself with its longer axis at right-angles to the 
direction of the light. Observations by Göbel on Micrasterias 
and on the influence of light on the spores of low plants are 
noticed. Ferdinand Lindheimer, the collector of “ Plantae Lind- 
heimeriane,” lately died at New Braunfels, Mexico, aged about 
78. In a pamphlet printed at Camden, N. J., and entitled 
“ Notes on the Bartram Oak, Quercus heterophyela Michx.,” Mr. 
I. C. Martindale enters into an elaborate discussion of the reasons 
why the foregoing name given by Michaux should be main- 
tained, and its rank as a good species established. The immediate 
occasion for the essay, was the discovery of some trees near Mount 
Holly, 
ZOOLOGY.! | 
Tue Istanp or Ret.—Dr. Spitzka has advanced reasons for 
denying the current theory that the Island of Reil is the locality 
1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Cougs, U. S. A. 
pe 
