~ 
750 General Notes. [ November, 
specimens, as all those seen from Brazil are, like the British ones, 
barren. Messrs. Godwin and Salvin’s forthcoming Biologia Cen- 
trali-Americana will contain a full catalogue of the known spe- 
cies of plants of Central America by Mr. Hemsley. | 
Pringsheim’s Jahrbuch fiir Wissenschaftliche Botanik for 1878, 
contains a paper by Woronin on Plasmodiophora, the cause of 
“anbury ” in turnips. R.Sadebeck writes on the development 
of the embryo of the horsetails (Equisetum) and H. Banke on the 
germination of the Schiz@acee. 
In the Botanische Zeitung, H. Nebelung continues his spectro- 
scopic researches on the coloring matters of some fresh water 
DeBary discourses on a apogamous ferns, and the phe- 
nomena of apogamy, in general. 
The French Academy has elected as corresponding members 
of the section of Botany, Dr. Asa Gray and Mr. Charles Darwin. 
ZOOLOGY.? 
Tue Rigut WHALE OF THE SOUTHERN European SEas.—Prof. 
Gasco, of Genoa, has recently published, through the Royal 
Academy of Sciences of Naples, a full description of the exter- 
nal and internal characters of a right whale which was taken near 
Taranto, in 1877. This specimen was regarded by Dr. Capel- 
lini as representing a species new to science, which he named 
alena tarentina. Prof. Gasco has concluded on the other hand 
that it is a specimen of the &. cisarctica Cope, thus confirming 
the supposition of Prof. Cope that the species of the eastern 
coast of North America is identical with that of the Gulf of Bis- 
cay. The specimen is not adult, and of about the same age and 
size as the one captured near Philadelphia about 1864. : 
M. Fischer, of Paris, after a study of the remains and descrip- 
tions of the whales of the Temperate and Southern European 
coasts within his reach, has found the following to be- related 
orms: The Balena cisarctica Cope, and the Saw of the Ameri- 
can coast; the Nordkaper and Balena biscayensis of the Euro- 
pean coast; the Hunterius temminckii Gray, of the Cape of Good 
-= Hope, and the subfossil Hunterius swedenborgti Lillj., of Goth- 
land and Balena lamanoni of Paris. He concludes that these 
are not all identical, but belong to two divisions, perhaps of one 
species each, which are characterized, the one by the very small 
head, bifid first rib, and the very thick and almost cylindrical in- 
ferior extremities of the ribs; the second by a larger head, simple 
a first and flattened following ribs. To the former belong the 
_ Hunterii and the B. biscayensis; to the latter the A. cisarctica and 
woo. ; ; : 
i À NEW SPECIES OF GORILLA.—An adult female of a species of 
illa was received in Paris about a year ago, and became the 
1 sof i Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
