RF.CENT LITERATURE. 
> of Artesian 
paper is to call 
into prominence the varied qualifying conditions that solicit consid- 
eration, and, if possible, stimulate and aid those special discrimina- 
tive studies which lead to an intelligent confidence of success or a 
prudent withholding from failure. The author thinks it advisable to 
map off the face of the country into areas of (i) favorable, (2) doubt- 
ful, and (3) adverse probabilities. The areas of probable success 
would be the relatively low tracts, the areas of adverse probabilities, 
the relatively high regions, and the doubtful belts would be in be- 
'Ward's Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie Group,^— 
In this book the author gives a condensed account of the Laramie 
Group, together with a series of illustrations of fossil plants obtained 
from the lower series in Colorado and Wyoming, and from typical 
Fort Union strata in the valleys of the Lower Yellowstone and the 
Upper Missouri. 
Of the latter there are 131 Dicotyledons, 3 Monocotyledons, 3 
Coniferae, and 2 Cryptogams. The synopsis is in the form of tables, 
which show at a glance the distrilnition of Laramie, Senonian and 
Eocene plants, and will therefore be of great service to a i)ala30- 
botanist. 
Scudder's Insect Larva, Mormolucoides Articulatus, from 
the Connecticut River Rocks. ^ The presence of these insect remains 
in the Triassic shales at Turner's Falls, Mass., was first made known 
by Prof. Edward Hitchcock, in 1858, and they were then considered 
the larvje of a neuropterous insect. Since that time various opinions 
have been advanced as to the affinities of these fossils. Recently Mr. 
Scudder has reviewed the whole subject, carefully examining hundreds 
' The Requisite and Qualifying Conditions of Artesian Wells, by Thomas C. Cham- 
berlin. Extract from the Fifth Annual Report U. S. Gaol. Sur\'ey. 1885. 
-• Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie Group, by Lester F. Ward. Extract from the 
