484 The American Naturalist. [May, 
matter in aqueous solution, but to have resulted from igneous fusion, 
The fact that they are always associated with diorite, which has been 
left in its present positions in a molten state, points in this direction. 
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., pp. 125-140.) According to R. 
Etheridge, Jr., there have been no geologic traces of man discovered 
in Australia up to the present time. The meagre details in the finds 
recorded render their evidence untrustworthy, (Proc. Linnean Soc. 
New South Wales, Vol. V., pp. 259-268.) Professor von Ettings- 
hausen, the eminent Austrian paleobotanist, has published a memoir 
on the fossil plants of New Zealand. This work is now being repro- 
duced in English, and will be published with a large amount of addi- 
tional information upon the same subject. (Rept. Col. Mus. and Geol. 
Surv. New Zealand, No. 20.) The annual appropriation for the 
Geological Survey of Texas, made by the Legislature just adjourned, 
is $35,000, exclusive of printing. Appropriations were also made 
for testing the lignites, for the publication of an accurate map of the- 
state, and for the erection of a laboratory building at the University 
of Texas, which will contain a suite of rooms for the chemical depart- 
ment of the survey. 
BOTANY. 
North American Diatoms.'—Seven years ago the botanists of 
this country were presented by Mr. Wolle with a handy book on 
Desmids, and three years later they found themselves again indebted 
to the industrious author for an equally useful work on the fresh-water 
Algz of the United States, exclusive of the Desmids (treated in r 
previous work) and the Diatomaceæ. We have now the pleasure 0 
hich the 
noticing a volume on the Diatoms of North America, in w 
author completes his series of works on the Algæ. d 
e plan of the work resembles that of Schmidt's ‘Atlas a 
Diatomaceen Kunde,” in which figures serve in place of pe 
descriptions. Any one who has worked with these tiny plants He 
full well that a good figure is of much more use in the geter 
of species than a great deal of descriptive text. The text oer 
` 1 Diatomaceze of North America, Illustrated with twenty-three hundred fig" woe 
` the author’s drawings on one hundred and twelve plates. ed vse arn States.” 
author of “ Desmids of the United States,” “ Fresh-Water Algz of the neces 
Bethlehem, Pa., The Comenius Press, 1890 
