138 The American Naturalist. [February, 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
The Mesozoic Echinodermata of the United States.'—This 
memoir, issued as Bulletin No. 97 of the U.S. Geol. Survey, is the | 
first of a series of reports on the American fossil radiates. A com- 
plete bibliography of the subject is followed by a systematic review of 
the various forms, in which brief descriptions, giving merely the char- 
acteristics necessary for accurate determination of species, is the rule. 
The geological range of the American Mesozoic species is shown in 
tabular form, and, in conclusion, there is an index to the various terms 
employed by those who have written upon the Mesozoic Echinodermata 
of the United States. 
The memoir is profusely illustrated, the plates, 50 in number, occu- 
pying over half the volume. Many details of structure not given in 
the text are shown in the drawings. This book fills a need, as no gen- 
eral work on the subject exists, but students were compelled to search 
through a much scattered literature for information and identification. 
Tertiary Rhynchophorous Coleoptera of the United 
States.’—This monograph is the first of a series upon the fossil insects 
of this country by Dr. S. H.Scudder. In its preparation, besides a 
number of specimens which could not be definitely placed, the author 
has examined 753 Rhynchophora, of which 431 come from Florissant 
and 320 from the Gosiute fauna. In the introduction Dr. Scudder 
gives in tabular statements (1) a comparative view of recent and fossil 
Rhynchophora ; (2) the relative importance of the families of group ; 
(3) the relative abundance of the orders of insects in different Western. 
deposits. 
_ In conclusion the author ‘makes the following statements regarding 
the Rhynchophorous fauna of the American Tertiaries in general : 
“(1) The general facies of the fauna is American, and somewhat 
more southern than its geographical position would indicate. 
“ (2) All the species are extinct, and though the Gosiute Lake and 
the ancient lacustrine basin of Florissant were but little removed from 
1 The Mesozoic Echinodermata of the United States, by W. B. Clark. Bull. 
No. 97, U. S. Geol. Survey, Washington, 1893. 
2 Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Vol. xxi. Tertiar 
Rhynchophorous Coleoptera of the United States, by Samuel Hubbard Scudder, 
Washington, 1893 
