436 Scientific News. [May, 



(Feb. 22), was preparing a descriptive work on the mosses of the 

 United States. The most eminent of French botanists, Joseph 

 Decaisne, died Feb. 8, aged 74. He was the director of the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 



— A Correction. — In the April Naturalst, p. 292, in our article 

 "Is Limulus an Arachnid?", I quote the published statements 

 of the late Willemoes-Suhm, that the East Indian Limulus rotun- 

 dicauda passed through a free-swimming nauplius stage. It now 

 appears, as we learn from Prof. Faxon, from a letter from Mr. 

 Murray, who was on the Challenger, " that the whole thing was 

 a blunder of Willemoes-Suhm's, and that he had the larva of a 

 Cirriped instead of a Limulus. A blunder which Suhm himself 

 rectified." It was evidently overlooked by the editors of his " let- 

 ters," and we have failed to find any rectification of the blunder 

 in the Zeits or elsewhere. — A. S. 



Packard, Jr. 



— Professor R. E. Call of DesMoines, Iowa, is preparing for a 

 second collecting trip to the South in the interests of conchology. 

 The collections of the present season will be confined to the State 

 of Georgia, the greater portion of which has never been explored. 

 It is notorious that most of the Georgia Uniones are rare in col- 

 lections, and many of them rare even in Georgia. 



The number of full shares will be again limited to twenty-ftM- 

 The expenses of a trip of this nature are very great, and, with so 

 limited a number of shares, it is necessary to place the price of 

 each Jull share at $20, and half shares at #15. Subscriptions 

 are due when the shares are delivered. 



— The Census Bureau has issued statistics of the production of 

 precious metals in the U. S., by Clarence King, with useful, 

 graphic presentations of the results. The bullion product of the 

 United States, for 1880, was #74,490,620. The United States pro- 

 duce 33.13 per cent, of the gold yield of the whole world, 80.54 

 per cent, of the silver, and 40.91 per cent, of the total. 



— A fellowship in mining has been established at Princeton, 

 which is to be opened to the senior class and to post-graduate 

 students. The income of the fellowship is $600, and the fellow 

 will be required to spend one year in the continuous study of the 

 mines and mining interests of Colorado. The first award will be 

 made on examination next June. 



— The younger naturalists of Boston, Mass., have formed an 

 association called the " Boston Zoological Society," which pub- 

 lishes a quarterly journal, of which two numbers have been issued. 



— The methods and results of a study, by Capt. W. H. Dall, 

 of the currents and temperatures of Bering sea is a timely and 

 useful publication, issued by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



