nts he 
et SE ee 
F 
R 
1878.] Zoölogy. 1O- 
BoranicaL News.—In the London Journal of Botany M. A. 
Hartog describes the floral structure and affinities of Sapotacee. 
W. P. Hiem discusses a question of botanical nomenclature. C 
C. Babington contributes Notes on Rudi,and there are several 
descriptive papers. 
At a late meeting of the Linnæan Society, F. Darwin read a 
paper on the Nutrition of Drosera rotundifolia, in which he showed 
the advantage ġained by the plant being fed with meat, and that 
the capture by the plant of flies is of similar benefit. 
Mr. T. Dyer made a brief communication on the so-called 
“ rain-tree ” of Moyobamba, North Peru. This tree promises to 
excite as much interest amongst residents in hot, dry countries as 
the supposed anti-malarious properties of the fever tree (Eucalyptus 
globulus) had done amongst the inhabitants of hot dry ones. From 
information received through Mr. Spence, it seemed probable that 
the rain tree was Pithecolobium saman, and the so-called “ rain” the 
fluid excretions of homopterous insects which fed on the juices of 
the foliage; other trees, however might become rain trees, and the 
phenomena were comparable to the production of honey dew 
from the lime, etc., by the agency of Aphides. 
ZOOLOGY. ! 
HE HOMOLOGY OF THE CHEVRON BONES.—The chevron bones 
of Reptilia and Mammalia have been regarded as the homologues 
on the inferior side of the vertebral centrum, of the neural arch 
sense. I have recently determined the fact that the basal por- 
tions of the chevron bones are continued throughout the greater 
part of the vertebral column in the Permian genera C/lepsydrops, 
Metarmasaurus and Epicordylus, forming intervertebral elements to 
which I have given the name of intercentra. This intercentrum 
nearly replaces the centrum in Zrimerorachis, and does so com- 
pletely in Rhachitomus, both Permian genera. In Cricotus the 
intercentra are subequally developed with the centra, producing 
the curious appearance of two kinds of vertebral bodies alternating — 
= with each other, the true centra only bearing neural arches, and 
the intercentra bearing chevrons in the caudal region. It appears 
then that the chevron bones are the remnants in the caudal verte- 
bra of a structure once general throughout the column of air- 
breathing Vertebrata, but which’ has been replaced in them in the 
dorsal and lumbar regions, by the true centrum. e free 
elements of the cervical series of some reptiles are probably the 
Ci 
= same.—Z£. D. Cope. 
1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT ee 
U.S. A. ae 
< Cougs, 
_ VOL, XII—wNo. V. 23 
