160 
REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
10. -—Rhizobotrya, a New Genus of Plants in the German Flora. —Among' 
a great number of Draba stellata gathered by Siebold in the Austrian Alps (no 
more precise indication is given), M. Tausch found a plant which he took to be 
a new species of Cocklearia. On examining the plant more attentively, he w'as 
agreeably surprised by discovering a new genus, allied to Kernera, Med. The 
lateral radicule prevents it from ranging in the genus Eudena^ Hums, and Bonpl., 
where the radicule is dorsal. He promises to publish a figure of this plant, and 
gives the name Rhizohotrya to the new genus. 
M. Tausch adds a complete description of this new plant, and re-ananges the 
genus Kernera, the better to characterize his Rhizohotrya.—Annates des Sciences 
Naiurelles. 
GEOLOGY. 
11. —On the Basilosaurus, a New Genus of Saurian Fossil, discovered- 
in America. —The discovery of this species is due to Judge Bree, of Arkansas, 
who found, in 1831?, the first vertebra on the marshy borders of the river Washita. 
Towards the close of the same year, other vertebrae, fragments of the lower jaw,. 
&c., were discovered at Alabama, thirty miles from Chairbome. Several enorm¬ 
ous vertebrae, teeth, ribs, fragments of the shoulder, humerus, tibia, &:c., have 
since been collected, and recently (May, 1835) another skeleton, promising rich 
fossil remains, has been found. There were near it one of the caudal vertebrae 
of the MosauruSy or Crocodile of Maestricht. 
All the bones that have been secured, though differing from each other in 
relative proportions, belong to the same species; the structure of the lower jaw, 
which is hollow, indicates that it belongs to an extinct genus of Saurians. The 
comparatively small size of the bones of the extremities prove that the tail was 
the principal organ of motion; the anterior members ought to have been fins. 
The series of vertebrae, extending in one specimen to the length of more than 100 
English feet, and estimated at upwards of 150 in that of Arkansas, shows that 
this gigantic animal must have equalled or even surpassed these dimensions, and 
renders it worthy of the name it has received, Basilosaurus., or King of the 
Saurians.— Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve. 
REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
A Nomenclature of British Birds; being a systematic catalogue of all the 
species hitherto discovered in Britain and Ireland, intended for labelling collections 
