1S96.] Vegetable Physiology. 137 



Two new species of Fishes from the Rolling Downs Formation 

 (Lower Cretaceous) of Queensland are described by A. S. Woodward. 

 They represent species of the genera Portheus and Cladoeyclus, to 

 which he gives the names «n.4ra/i.$ and weetii respectively. This dis- 

 covery of these fossils is of considerable interest, since with the excep- 

 tion of a few Selachian teeth and vertebra?, and a tine species of Belon- 

 ostomus, no cretaceous ichthyolites of importance have hitherto been 

 described from this colouv. (Ann. Mag. Nat lint i; » X I V 18<»4 P 

 444.) 



Cenozoic— Fossil Ants are reported from the Bembridge limestone 

 (Eocene) of the Isle of Wight. They are referred by P. B. Brodie to 

 the genera Formica, Myrmica and Camp.motus, and some others not 

 yet described. The first two genera have also been found in the Baltic 

 Amber. (Nature, 1895, p. .570.) 



The Champlain epoch is correlated 'by Prof. Hitchcock with the 

 Mecklenburg stage of Geikie. Both have the characteristic marine 

 mollusca fauna, the Arctic flora (Yoldia beds of the Baltic) and best 

 illustrate the isobases of De Geer. (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer Vol 7 

 1895.) 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 1 

 Smut Fungi by Oscar Brefeld.— At last we have in two big 

 quartos, with numerous plates, the long promised volumes on the smut 

 fungi. The work which is here completed was begun more than 12 

 years ago. The earlier experiments were gathered together and pub- 

 lished in 1883 in a volume of 220 pages with numerous plates under 

 the title of Die Brandpilze I, forming Heft V of Dr. Brefeld 's I'nter- 

 suchungen, the most important and revolutionary portion of this vol- 

 ume being the demonstration that the smut fungi, a goodly number at 

 least and presumably all of them, although previously supposed to be 

 strictly parasitic were capable of growing saprophytically and of multi- 

 plying indefinitely in dung in the form of sprout conidia, closely resem- 

 bling yeasts, if not identical with many forms previously referred to 

 this group. Some years later in an address before tbe agricultural club 

 of Berlin, Dr. Brefeld communicated the most important results of his 

 1 This department is edited by Erwin F. Smith, Department of Agriculture, 



