&86 General Notes. [ October, 
British and Ipswich museums, believes that three species of 
Mastodon, M. arvernensis, M. longirostris and M. borsoni are rep- 
resented ; that Hyena arvernensis and H. antigua are probably 
identical with Æ. striata; and that there are two forms of Sus, the 
larger probably S. erymanthius or S. antiquus, the smaller S. palæ- 
ocherus. The other quadrupeds are a tapir, more likely T. arven- 
ensis or T. elegans than T. priscus; Hippotherium gracile, and a 
Rhinoceros, probably the hornless R. izcisivus (though R. schleier- 
machert probably also occurred). A species of albatross was also 
represented. 
Quaternary—M. A. de Lapparent (Bull. d. 1. Soc. Geol. de 
France, 1885, 456) traces the origin of the yellow silicious silt of 
the plateaux of the Paris basin. He points out that wherever the 
edge of this bed is seen against a line of heights, veins of small 
angular flints are seen, and shows that in character the mud ex- 
actly resembles that left by melted snow or running rain water— 
an oxidized mud which has always been in contact with the air. 
Nowhere else in France does this yellow mud cover so large an 
extent. It is, M. de Lapparent believes, the impalpable residue 
of the ancient Tertiary deposits, and its thickness is proportionate 
to that of those deposits. During the glacial period the flints, 
alternately subjected to freezing and melting, crumbled to pieces. 
M. de Mercey, in a subsequent note upon the same subject, shows 
that the Quaternary gravels were deposited in the water syn- 
chronously with the formation of the alluvium at higher levels. 
When these beds are found superimposed in the terraces of the 
valleys, the alluvium is not contemporaneous with the gravel it rests 
upon, but with that at a lower level. M. de Mercey also main- 
tains the distinctness of an atmospheric bed of glacial mud, which 
was formed by the crumbling of the flints in the manner indicated 
by M. de Lapparent. 
BOTANY. 
BOTANICAL Work oF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.—The recent meeting of the pone 
tion at Buffalo showed no diminution of the interest taken a 
phase of botanical science still maintains with the leaders. 
following is the list of papers presented : 
” A in or hygroscopic cells of grasses and sedges compared. By W. J. 
These cells are modified epidermal cells which occur in g" vee 
_ „Edited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska, i“ 
