636 The American Naturalist. D^iy, 
After dinner we entered the wooded valley and began our search. 
Almost in the edge of the water near our stopping-place rank stems of 
Glyceria arundinacea Kunth., three feet high, and with a panicle 
about sixteen inches long, were gathered. This is not a rare species in 
many places, but has not been noted before for Nebraska. Near this, 
and still in the edge of the water, were Glyceria nervata Trin., and 
the common Panicum virgatum L. The trees commonly found grow- 
ing in the valley were Celtts occidentalis L., Prunus americana Mar- 
shall, Primus demissa Walpers, Ulmus americana (L.) Willd., Cornus 
stolonifer Michx., Negundo aceroides Moench., Populus fnonoli/era Ait., 
Salix longifolia Muhl., Rhus glabra L., and in isolated patches or 
clumps Shepherdia argentea Nutt. The latter is found also on the 
edge of the bluffs above. 
In the woods specimens of Elyrnus .f/r/a/z/i- Willd., Agrostis exerata 
Trin., and Impatiens pallida Nutt., were collected. The latter was 
very badly rusted {^/Ectdium impatientis Schw.). The rather rare grass 
Oryzopsis micrantha (Trin. and Rupr.), never before catalogued for 
Nebraska, grew in the edge of a pond, and near it, on wet, sandy soil, 
Alopecurus geniculatus L. var. aristulatus (Michx.) Torr. 
H. J. Webber. 
Botanical Laboratory, University of Nebraska. 
[To be Continued.] 
ZOOLOGY. 
Professor H. Gadow on the Homologies of the Auditory 
Ossicles. — The homology of the auditory ossicles does not seem to 
be yet settled. The last contribution to the subject is that of Herr 
Hans Gadow, now Strickland curator and lecturer on the advanced 
morphology of the Vertebrata, at Cambridge, England. (Philo. Trans. 
Royal Society, London, 1888, Vol. 179, pp. 451-485.) Professor Ga- 
dow carries the history of the first and second visceral arches through 
the entire vertebrate series, and illustrates his memoir with four quarto 
plates, which give the results of his labors. The jx)ssession of an am- 
ple collection of rare Elasmobranch forms, especially Heptanchus, 
Hexanchus, Centrophorus, Myliobates, and Trygon, with several fresh 
examples of Sphenodon, motived the examination of the question. 
Professor Gadow finds that in the Notidanidse the first and second 
