the arrival of the first European, together with the circumstance that it grows to all appearance wild in various parts of the country, may be looked upon as almost conclusive of its being indigenous."-p. 216. Sarsaparilla. Seemann appears clearly to have proved that Smilax officinalis, H. H. K., S. papyracea, Duhamel, and S. medica, Schlecht.all yielding officinal sarsaparilla,-are botanically one and the same species. It grows on the slopes of mountains, to an elevation of 5000 feet above the level of the sea, in South America, between the 20th degree of north, and the 6th degree of south latitude, and the 110th and 40th degress of west longitude. The "Jamaica sarsaparilla," it appears, is not the produce of that island, but is received there from the Spanish Main, and thence shipped to Europe and the United States. The "Lisbon or Brazilian sarsaparilla" is distinguished from the former by pharmacologists chiefly by having fewer rootlets or "beards;" but it is evident that the rootlets have been removed by some rough mechanical process, as the marks of their origin are plainly seen; "proving that the roots when gathered had as much beard as the sort usually received as Jamaica sarsaparilla, and making it probable, that, if the merchant buying up this Zarza in various parts of Brazil, were to inform the collectors that by preserving the beard they would not only save themselves much unnecessary trouble, but increase the weight and the commercial value of the roots they dig up, we should soon get all our Jamaica sarsaparilla from Brazil, and in a few years have difficulty in obtaining even a specimen of what is now termed Lisbon sarsaparilla." As to another chief distinction of the pharmacologists, into the mealy and non-mealy sorts; "any body opening a bundle of Jamaica sarsaparilla may pick out as many roots as he chooses, mealy at one end and non-mealy at the other." As to the distinctions of the form of the cells of the 'liber,' which have been considered by physiologists as forming good marks of distinction between the sarsaparillas of Central America and those of South America, our author cites from a paper by Mr. Bentley, in the Pharmaceutical Journal for April, 1833, the results of recent microscopical examinations which invalidate these characters also. The rather few Graminea and Cyperaceae of the Isthmus are elaborated by the venerable Nees von Esenbeck, and this is announced as probably the last scientific labor of a career as an author which began about forty years ago. The Ferns, here numerous in species, are elaborated by Mr. Smith of Kew, who has introduced and explained the characters discovered and turned to important account by him in classification, founded on the structure and mode of development of the caudex and fronds. In a note, Mr. Smith gives further information about the Lomaria eriopus of Kunze, or Stangeria paradoxa, which proves to be a true Cycadaceous plant," presenting a new feature in that order on account of its simply forked venation rising from a true midrib, thus rendering untenable the character which is usually relied upon for distinguishing fossil Cycadea from fossil Filices." ! From the plates in this part belonging to the Flora of Northwestern Mexico, we perceive that Schultz intends to keep Acourtia distinct from Perezia. SECOND SERIES, Vol. XIX, No. 57.-May, 1855. 56 A. G. 3. Tulasne, on the Uredinea and Ustilaginea.-Nearly two num. bers (2 and 3) of the second volume of the botanical portion of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1854, are occupied with Tulasne's elaborate "second Mémoire sur les Uredinées et les Ustilaginees, which are those microscopic Fungi that attack and inhabit living plants (foliage, herbaceous and even woody stems, immature fruits, &c.), some of which, known to us by the name of Rust, Blight, and the like, often do a vast deal of damage. As an instance we may allude to the malady of the grape, which for the last year or two has so seriously diminished the product of this important culture in the south of Europe, Madeira, &c. This memoir, like its predecessor (in 1847), is not of a popular character, and scarcely touches directly upon the subject of these ravages; but is a profound scientific investigation, of the highest order, into the structure, development, mode of life, and kinds of this minute parasitic vegetation, upon a clear and true knowledge of which all successful remedial or preventive measures will have to be based. As Fungi, even of these tribes, are beginning to be studied in this country with much zeal, we have only to call the attention of our mycologists to this able paper, and to say that the general physiologist will also find it of no small interest, from the light it sheds upon some of the simplest forms of vegetable existence. M. Tulasne devotes much attention to a curious complication which occurs in these otherwise so simple plants; the lowest organized forms being almost uniformly intimately associated with those of a different and higher organization. This has been variously explained; some supposing one kind to change into the other associated with it by a further develop. ment; some have contended that one species was here parasitic upon another, itself a parasite; while others look upon these cases as a kind of dimorphism in fructification, comparable with what is known to occur in a good many Phænogamous plants. The latter view is maintained by M. Tulasne, and its correctness is nearly demonstrated. A. G. 4. The Grasses of Wisconsin and the adjacent States; by I. A. LAPHAM, Milwaukie in the Transactions of the Wisconsin State Ag. ricultural Society, vol. iii, for 1853. Madison, 1854.-Both as to the matter which they contain and the manner in which they are edited and printed, the Agricultural Transactions' of the young State of Wiscon sin compare most favorably with those of any of the older States. The communications which make up a large part of the present volume are of a better, more correctly scientific, and truly practical character than those which we generally meet with in such publications, where the amount of chaff is apt to be grossly disproportionate to the grain. We are much struck with the amount of learning and the general scientific accuracy, as well as the practical good sense of those we have particularly examined; such as the articies on the Potato, and its disease, by R. W. Wright of Waukesha, and on Vegetable Physiology as applied to Farm Plants, by J. Townnly of Moundville. At the close of the volume nearly 100 pages are occupied by Mr. Lapham's faithful and excellent account of the grasses of Wisconsin, prefaced by a general account of the family, and a convenient artificial arrangement or key to the genera of the Grasses of the Northwestern States. The species are well described in plain botanical language, their qualities and uses indicated, good 8vo plates of eleven species are given, each accompanied by magnified analyses of the parts of fructification, and similar analyses of as many more species are given on another plate. These are creditably executed from original drawings by Mr. Lapham himself, and they will afford invaluable assistance to the student of this difficult but very important natural order of plants,-most important to the agriculturist since it furnishes the principal sustenance of man and the domesticated animals. A. G. 5. H. G. Reichenbach: De Pollinis Orchidearum Genesi ac Structura, et de Orchideis in artem ac Systema redigendis. Leipsic, 1852, pp. 38, 4to. tab. 2.-We ought earlier to have noticed this elaborate essay of the younger Reichenbach, who is devoting himself to the study and systematic arrangement of the great Orchideous family with much ability and acuteness, as this and other recent publications show. The formation and development of the various and singular forms of pollen in this family are fully and beautifully illustrated, both in the letterpress and in the figures, which last fill two crowded plates. Of their bearing upon the systematic arrangement of Orchidea we are not qual. ified to judge: but it is highly in their favor that they appear to coincide with the views long ago propounded by Robert Brown. A. G. Ergot, of Rye and other Grasses, is produced by species of Claviceps, a genus of Ascomycetous Fungi established by Tulasne, who has cleared up the great confusion which prevailed respecting the na ture and history of these vegetables, or vegetable productions. The ergot is not a metamorphosed seed resulting from diseased conditions, nor a mere diseased form of the seed associated with a parasitic fungus, as thought by E. Quekett, Leveillé, Phoebus, Mougeout, and Fée, but a real fungoid structure. The first sign of the attack of the fungus upon the flower of a grass is the appearance of the sphacelium upon the outside of the nascent pistil; it soon penetrates the wall of the ovary, growing with it until it forms a fungoid mass of the same shape as an ovary, but obliterating the cavity of the latter. At this time it is soft, while, grooved on the surface, and excavated by irregular cavities, which are connected with the external folds or grooves: the surfaces of these are all covered with parallel linear cells, like a hymenium; and from the extremities of these arise elongated, ellipsoid, or oval cells, about 1-5000′′ in length. These become detached, and when placed in water germi nate and emit filaments. These bodies are spermatia, stylospores, or perhaps conidia. At a certain epoch a viscid fluid exudes from the sphacelium, flowing over it and carrying about multitudes of the spermatia or stylospores; but previously to this, a solid body, of a violet color on the surface and white within, has originated at the base of the spermagonium, and it gradually grows and rises out of the paleæ of the flower, forming the spur or ergot. Three species are described by Tulasne. (Micrographic Dictionary, by Griffith and Henfrey, part 6.) A. G. 6. Trigonocarpon.-Mr. Jos. D. Hooker has shown, from the structure and integuments, that the fossil fruit of the coal era called Trigonocarpon, is the fruit of a coniferous tree, and is near that of the genus Salisburia.-Roy. Soc., London, March, 1854. 7. Analytical Class-Book of Botany, designed for Academies and Private Students. In two parts. Part 1, Elements of Vegetable Struc 1 ture and Physiology; by FRANCES H. GREEN; Part II, Systematic Botany, illustrated by a Compendious Flora of the Northern States; by JOSEPH W. CONGDON. 328 pp., small 4to. New York, 1855. D. Appleton and Co.-An elementary and well illustrated text-book for the young student of Botany. 8. On Bathygnathus borealis, an extinct Saurian of the New Red Sandstone of Prince Edward's Island; by JOSEPH LEIDY, M.D., (extracted from the Journal of the Acad. of Nat. Sci. Philad., vol. ii.)— In the last visit of the enthusiastic and distinguished geologist Sir Charles Lyell, to this country, he informed me that Mr. J. W. Dawson of Pictou, Nova Scotia, had received from Mr. D. McLeod, for disposal, a frag ment of a jaw of a large saurian animal, which was found in the New Red Sandstone Formation of Prince Edward's Island. Mr. Lyell sent me an outline drawing of the jaw: and with the disinterestedness of a cosmopolite philosopher, recommended Mr. Dawson to send the specimen to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, in preference to disposing of it abroad. It was accordingly sent to the latter place, and was purchased by Messrs. Isaac Lea, William S. Vaux, and myself, and was presented to the Academy, in the cabinet of which it is now very appropriately arranged at the side of the only other known saurian bones discovered in the New Red Sandstone of North America, described by Mr. Lea, under the name of Clepsysaurus Pennsylvanicus. The specimen consists of the right dental bone, considerably broken, attached by its inner surface to a mass of matrix of a red granular sandstone, with large, soft, angular, red chalk-like stones imbedded in it. The fossil has seven large teeth protruding beyond the alveolar margin of the jaw; and it is hard, brittle, and cream-colored, and stands out in beautiful relief from its dark red matrix. The jaw indicates a lacertian reptile, and in comparison with that of other known extinct and recent genera is remarkable for its great depth in relation to its length. The depth of the dental bone below the contiguous pair of equal sized teeth is five inches, whilst its length in the perfect condition appears not to have been more than seven and a quarter inches; for in the specimen the middle part of the posterior border is so thin and scale like, that I am disposed to think it here came in contact with the supra-angular and other neighboring bones. The outer side of the jaw is vertical, and over the course of the alveolar parapet is plane; but below this posteriorly and inferiorly above, the base of the bone is depressed into a moderately deep concavity. The upper or alveolar border forms a convex line rapidly descending towards the chin. The base forms an oblique line, and ascends anteriorly to the chin; and it appears thick and rounded externally; but in the specimen it presents an abrupt border internally, as if the inner side of the bone had been broken away, or as if the angular bone had articulated with it much in advance of its usual position in saurians. The external surface of the dental bone is every where marked by fine, reticular, vascular grooves, and in the vicinity of the alveolar bor. der it presents numerous minute vasculo-neural foramina. There is no regular row of foramina, visible in the specimen, for the transmission of terminal branches of the inferior dental nerve, such as exists in the Iguanas, Varanians, etc., but near the point of the chin there is a relatively very large foramen, partially filled with matrix, which appears to correspond with the internal mental foramen of the Iguana. Just posterior to this foramen there is a deep vascular groove, which in the perfect condition of the specimen may have proceeded from another foramen. The teeth in their relation to the dental bone, are placed upon the inner side, and rest against the alveolar border, which rises in a parapet external to them. Whether the parapet is supported by abutments between the teeth, as in Megalosaurus, I cannot certainly ascertain from the inner side of the jaw being so closely adherent to the matrix. The dental bone, if it be considered complete in its length in the specimen, is capable of containing a series of twelve teeth posterior to and including that situated most anteriorly in the fossil. As the teeth were worn away or broken off, they were replaced by others produced at their inner side, as is indicated in the specimen by a young tooth, which is situated internal to, and is concealed by, the largest mature tooth. The enameled crowns of the fully protruded teeth are exserted at their base for several lines above the alveolar border of the jaw. They are compressed, conoidal, and recurved, but compared with those of Megalosaurus they are not so broad, compressed, nor recurved, and they are more convex externally, and are less so internally. They resemble much in form those of the recent Monitor ornatus, but are less convex internally. The transverse section of the crowns of the teeth, except that of the first, is antero-posteriorly elliptical, with the inner side less convex and the extremities acute and in most instances slightly incurved. The anterior and posterior acute margins of the crowns are minutely crenulated; and the crenulations commence just below the tip and descend as far as the enamelled base. In comparison with the teeth of Clepsysaurus Pennsylvanicus, those of the fossil under examination are broader and more compressed, and except the first one of the series, present an acute, crenulated margin anteriorly and posteriorly, whilst in the former animal they are acute and crenulate only posteriorly.-[We omit part of the details.] From the extraordinary relative depth of the dental bone above described to its length, and from its northern locality, I have proposed for the carnivorous lacertian to which it belonged the name of Bathygnathus borealis.* This interesting fossil is the second authentic discovery of saurian bones in the New Red Sandstone Formation of North America; the first being those found near Hassac's Creek, in Lehigh Co., Pennsylvania, by Dr. Joel Y. Shelley, and described by my friend Mr. Isaac Lea, under the name of Clepsysaurus Pennsylvanicus.t In relation to the exact locality and geological position of the Bathygnathus borealis, Mr. J. W. Dawson has furnished me with the following note. "The fossil was found at New London, on the northern side of the Island, imbedded to the depth of nine feet in red sandstone, with calcareous cement, similar to the matrix attached to the fossil. The total * Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 404. Ibid, v., 171, 205; Jour. Ac. Nat Sci., ii. |