
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 613 
THE RULES OF ZOOLOGICAL NoMENCLATURE. *—JIn republishing these 
rules accompanied by many valuable notes and comments, Prof. Verrill 
has done good service to zoólogy in this country. A copy of these rules 
and those of the British Association, reviewed by Prof. Gray in a previous 
number of Silliman's Journal, should be in the hands of every zodlogist. 

NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 

BOTANY. 
ARTIFICIAL PREPARATION OF SUBSTANCES FOUND IN PLANTS AND ANI- 
MALS. — Dr. Debus, the President of the Chemical Section of the British 
Association, di “It has already become possible sie prepare in the 
tor odi 
ago were only found in the bodies of animals or plants. Alizarine, the 
beautiful compound o e madder-root, has been obtained by artificial 
means in the course of e year by Messrs. Liebermann and Grebe. Re- 
sults of such a nature render it highly probable that, at no distant period, 
it will be in our power to prepare, bapa nearly all, if not all, the sub- 
stances found in plants and animals. ere I must not be misunderstood. 
Organic structures, such as muscular cii or the leaves of a tree, the 
Science of chemistry is incapable of ditm e sm molecules, like those 
found in a leaf, or irf the stem of a tree, will no doubt one day be manu- 
factured from their elements. —Scientific Pei 
MaPLE-sEED, THREE WINGED. — I know not if it be common, and, there- 
fore, ask for information, but on a tree of the Acer saccharinum, or sugar 
maple, in the Central Park in this city (New York) I found, a few days 
since, a three-winged seed. The description of the genus says, ‘‘ovary 
2-celled. From the back of each ovary grows a wing, converting the 
fruit into two 1-seeded, at length separable, closed samaras or keys." 
(Gray.) I only found this one, though the trees were covered with seed, 
and I searched pretty carefully for more. — A. M. 

ZOÓLOGY. 
Kins: SCIDIAN VERTEBRATES.— The number of Max 
COCHE as (v. 5. just i pobitehed, contains a letter to = editor 
from Prof. Kupffer of Kiel, in which that distinguished embryologist 
asserts that he has been myl PYAR the early history of a species of Phal- 
lusia, and that his results in large measure agree with those of Kowal- 


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