cannot refrain from expressing our doubts whether Professor Marsh will be justified in proposing to distinguish the newly found type as an order distinct from the Ichthyopterygia. The mere presence or absence of teeth in the jaws is generally, and apparently very properly, regarded as of no very great systematic value, and unless other characters are associated with the negative or positive character in question, groups so differentiated may be very closely related. Doubtless, however, the character in this instance, at least, is of family importance; and we may therefore hail, in the Sauranodontidæ, a type especially interesting in its morphological as well as its geological relations.

An American Jurassic Mammal.

As is well known, mammals older than of tertiary age are among the rarest of fossils, and the discovery of a species in this country of Jurassic age is therefore noteworthy. The greater part of the right lower jaw (deprived, however, of all the teeth except the penultimate molar) of a small animal about the size of a weasel was obtained in the beds designated, by Professor Marsh, as the "Atlantosaurus beds of the Upper Jurassic." This fragment has served for the foundation, by Marsh, of the Dryolestes priscus, representative of a new genus as well as species. The tooth preserved, it is said, "has the same general form as the corresponding molar of Chironectes variegatus, Illiger," the water - opossum of South America. Although doubtless a Marsupial, nothing positive can be predicated from the known remains. It may be remarked as a singular fact that of the now quite numerous species of Triassic and Jurassic mammals known, almost nothing but the lower jaws have been found, and, as has been indicated, the Dryolestes is not an exception to the rule.

The Miocene Mammalian Fauna of Oregon.

Through the labors of Messrs. Leidy, Marsh, and Bettany, a considerable number of species of mammals of the order of Ungulates have been made known as representatives of the Miocene fauna of Oregon, but of the other types of the class almost nothing was known. Towards the end of last year, however, Professor Cope contributed a memoir "on some of the Characters of the Miocene Fauna of Oregon," which has,

to a considerable degree, supplemented the data already acquired; and types of the orders of Rodents and Carnivores have been added. During the epoch in question, the Ungulates were conspicuous on account of their number and variety; and members of the existing families of Rhinocerids and Dicotylids (Peccaries) flourished, in company with several species of the horse-like Anchitheriids, and with representatives of the generalized types of Elotheriids and Oreodontids. The family of Chalicotheriids, or Brontotheriids, was also apparently manifested under a huge form, which has been distinguished by Cope as a new generic type (Dœodon shoshonensis). This is considered by its describer to be "the largest of the North American Perissodactyla, with the possible exception of the Menodus Proutii." Among the Carnivores contemporary with these were several Canida, either related to the wolves and foxes of the present epoch, or generically distinct, and a sabre-toothed Felid of the genus Machærodus. Rodents of the families of Castoridæ (Beavers), Saccomyida, and Sciuridae (Squirrels) are also among the novelties added by Professor Cope.

BOTANY.

By Professor W. G. FARLOW,

HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

During the year 1878 there has been great activity in all the departments of botany, but, contrary to what was the case in 1877, the more important publications have related to phanerogams rather than cryptogams. As usual, the work done in America has been almost entirely descriptive, but it has been of a high order; and we record with pleasure an unusual number of American books, especially relating to phanerogams and ferns, which have not been surpassed by any corresponding European publications. With the exception of Great Britain, the activity of European botanists has been directed rather to minute researches on the structure of the vegetable cell, to the development of the lowest forms of vegetable life, and to vegetable physiology, than to descriptive works, although there has been by no means a dearth of the latter. In giving an account of the progress of botany we have, for the convenience of the reader, separated the part relating to America from that relating to foreign countries, beginning with the publications of this country.

PROGRESS IN AMERICA.
Phanerogams.

During the present year there have appeared several of the most valuable contributions ever made to a knowledge of American phanerogams. First in importance must be mentioned Part I. of the "Flora of North America," by Professor Asa Gray. This work is in reality a continuation of the "Flora of North America," by Torrey and Gray, in two volumes, which ended with the Compositæ. The new "Flora" begins with the Goodeniacea, and Part I. ends with the Plantaginaceae. It covers nearly 400 pages, and the descriptions include 1560 native species belonging to 298 genera, and 96 species of introduced plants belonging to 26

genera. In the American Naturalist for October, Mr. Sereno Watson gives a critical review of the "Flora," and states that, comparing the last-named work with Gray's Manual, the probable total number of species of phænogamous plants in North America is between nine and ten thousand. The following statistics, by Mr. Watson, are of general interest: "As regards the distribution of this (North American) flora, it appears, from a very cursory examination, that it divides readily into an eastern, a central, and a western section. The first may be considered as covered essentially by Gray's Manual and Chapman's Flora, and the last in good degree by the Botany of California. Taking these as guides, and making to each the additions indicated by the present ‘Flora,' it is found that the eastern division includes 610 native species, of which 130 are peculiar to the Manual, 205 to Chapman's Flora, and 275 common to both. The Botany of California includes 567 species, of which 58 belong also to the Atlantic States. Of the remaining 450 species, 48 are high northern and do not enter the United States; 8 are Mexican and not yet found within our limits; 290 are mainly southern, belonging to the warmer and dryer interior; and 103 are found only in the Rocky Mountains or the cooler region westward to Oregon. Had Greenland been included in the limits adopted by Dr. Gray, only two other species (Veronica fruticulosa and Gentiana nivalis) would have been added, and of these the latter is reported from Labrador."

Second only to the work of Professor Gray in its importance to the student of the North American flora is the "Index to American Botany," by Mr. Sereno Watson, of which Part I. has appeared, and includes the Polypetala. It covers about 450 pages and forms one of the Smithsonian miscellaneous collections. The preparation of the "Index" must have required very great labor, and the work has been most carefully and accurately performed by Mr. Watson.

Besides the two works already mentioned, there are several articles to be noticed in which new American species have been described. In the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of January 9, Professor Gray has a paper on the American species of Elatine, of which he recognizes four; and a second paper on Two New Genera of Acanthacea: Carlowrightia, in honor of Mr. Charles Wright,

and Gatesia, in honor of Dr. Hezekiah Gates. A third paper contains a description of 17 new species of Astragalus, most of which were collected in Arizona by Dr. E. Palmer. Finally, several miscellaneous species, principally Compositæ, are described. In the American Journal of Science for February is an article by Mr. Sereno Watson on the Poplars of North America. In the same journal is a paper by Professor Gray on Forest Geography and Archæology, in which are considered the causes which have produced a forest in California which is rich only in coniferous trees, while the forest of the Atlantic States is, with one exception, the richest in species of any in temperate regions. Four diagrams are given showing the comparative richness in species of the Atlantic-American, the Pacific-American, the Japan-Manchurian, and the European forests, and also the relative proportion of coniferous trees in the same regions. The Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis include a Synopsis of the American Firs (Abies), by Dr. George Engelmann. He recognizes nine American species. He is of the opinion that the microscopic character of the leaf has been too much regarded, to the neglect of the characters furnished by the reproductive organs. The subdivision of the genus, he thinks, can, with much greater certainty, be based on the differences of the leaf-structure than on the length of the bracts, as was formerly done. In the Torrey Bulletin, the same writer has some notes on the somewhat confused American species of Vitis. The Botanical Gazette contains a paper by Dr. A. W. Chapman on Plants from the Semi-tropical Regions of Florida, in which a number of new species are described.

A monograph of the genus Lechea, by Mr. W. H. Leggett, appeared in the Torrey Bulletin, accompanied by an elaborate revision of Rafinesque's paper on the same genus. A considerable number of lists of flowering plants have appeared, among which we may particularize a "Catalogue of the Phænogamous and Cryptogamous Plants of the Dominion of Canada," by T. Macoun; two lists of plants found in the Indian Territory, one by Mr. A. Wood and the other by Mr. G. D. Butler; and a paper on the Distribution of Certain Plants in Missouri, by G. C. Broadhead. Mr. T. S. Brandegee has a paper on the Conifera of the Crestones in the Botanical Gazette.