580 The American Naturalist [June 
tion of the position of the eye, yet in others the pigment is deposited 
there as elsewhere, so that all external trace of the eye is finally lost.” 
Mr. W. E. Ritter has investigated the pineal eye in several lizards 
from the western states. The species studied are Phrynosoma 
douglassit, Ph. cornuta, and Uta stansburiana, which are described at 
some.length. The author upon morphological grounds is willing to 
-accept the view that the organ in question was a visual structure, and 
that, contrary to Leydig, its function was not primarily. that of a por- 
tion of the lymph system, although it may have secondarily acquired 
the latter character. The conclusion which one comes to after read- 
ing the literature is that the ontogeny of the whole region: must be 
carefully followed before the question can be settled. 
A Migration of Butterflies.—While sailing up the Gulf of 
Mexico from St. Andrew’s Bay to Pensacola, Florida, on the 14th day 
of February last, I noticed a great many butterflies passing north. 
We were from five to ten miles from shore, and the butterflies all came 
from the south. I was at a loss to know just where they could come 
from, there being no land to the south nearer than Cuba and Central 
America. Would it be possible for them to fly such a distance? I 
could not procure a specimen, so cannot say what species they were ; 
but for size and general appearance they compared quite favorably 
with the fritillary’ They certainly were migrating north, for hun- 
dreds passed us during the day.—A. H. Borers 
y 
BOTANY. 
° Saccardo’s Suggestions to Phytographists.'—The extensive 
experience which I have gained in the elaboration of my *‘ Sylloge 
: Fungorum ” convinces me of the utility, I may say the necessity, of 
following in the description of plants certain oft-neglected rules. The 
following are recommended : 
ae 1. It is necessary that the botanist who describes with minute and 
=. involved details new species from morphological and biological stand- 
points should append thereto careful and comparative diagnoses — 
3 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XX., No. 8, r891. 
} Rathschlige fiir die Phytographen, inbesondere die Kryptogamisten. Hedwigia, 
Bd. XKX., Heft I, I891. S o 4 : ie 
