KN X
THE wv p AMERICAN NATURALIST, : AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE
OF
NATURAL HISTORY.
EDITED BY
A. S. PACKARD, Jr. anp F. W. PUTNAM.
R. H. WARD,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR, DEPARTMENT OF MICROSCOPY.
VOLUME VIII.
oh SALEM, MASS. oct 15 1926 i PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENAQE. “acta
a3
1874. Q4 RDEN Lee :
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PRINTED AT THE SALEM PRESS, F. W. PUTNAM & CO., Salem, Mass.
CONTENTS OF VOL. VIII.
NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN Europe. By W. G. Farlow, M.D. pp. 1, 112, 295.
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE Sourn. By C.Hart Merriam. pp. 6, 85.
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN Wyomina. By Dr. C. C. Parry. pp. 9, 102, 175, 211. ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA I By Dr. J. G. Cooper. p. 14. ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT AND THE w CONDI- TION IN PLants. By John aioektid Hough, M.D. p. RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. By Be + L. Greene.
pp. THE Piris ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND THE METHOD oF BIOLOGICAL TUDY. By Professor Allman. THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. By Theodore B. Comstock, B. S. 5, 155 Ox THE STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDE. By Prof. O. C. Marsh. With two plates. p. T THe Botany OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. By J. G. Cooper, M. D. 90.
p. Screxce IN THE UNITED StaTEs. From the French of Alphonse DeCan- dolle. p. 98. NOTES UPON AMERICAN WATER Birps. By Robert Ridgway. p. 108. FFERENT MODES OF TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. By Prof.
Tae WILD CATTLE OF Doorin OR WHITE Forest BREED. By E. Lewis Sturtevant. r 135. EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE WITH THE DREDGE. By A. S. Pack- ard, Jr. Ill bias. p. 145. THE GIANT CUTTLE-FISHES OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND THE COMMON SQUIDS oF THE New ENGLAND Coast. By Prof. A. E. Verrill. Illustrated.
p. 167.
Tue FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. By Prof. D. S. Jordan. p. 193.
On LOCAL VARIATIONS IN = NOTES AND NESTING HaBits or Birps. By Robert Ridgway. p.
A NEW SPECIES OF bas FROM CALIFORNIA, AND NOTES ON SOME OTHER NORTH AMERICAN Species. By M. S. Bebb. p. 202.
Tue Rosin. By Caroline ives: o p. 203.
Tue NATURAL History or a POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. By Samuel H. Scudder. p. 257.
G
Tue Game FALCONS OF New ENGLAND. Tue Sparrow Hawk. By Dr.
William Wood. p. 266.
>
ly CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII.
Nature’s MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF InsEcTs. By A. S. Pack- ard, Jr. Illustrated. p. 270. HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SwAINSON’s BUZZARD. By Dr. Elliott 282.
Coues. p. FossiL aha IN ae By Prof. O. C. Marsh. Illustrated. p. 288. THE PRES F CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. By Samuel H.
aar thi arate p- 321
NOTES ON THE CYPRINOIDS OF ‘Cake New Jersey. By Charles C. Abbott, M.D. J esas 326.
Tar MIGRATION oF Birps. By T. Martin Trippe. p. 338.
On THE STRUCTURE AND CASTING OF THE ANTLERS OF DEER. By John Dean Caton, LL. D. p. 348.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE RuYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. By John L. LeConte, M.D. p. 385. Concluded p. OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA FILIFORMIS. By William M. Canby. p. 396. A KEY To THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST, BETWEEN NEW- FOUNDLAND AND FLORIDA. By Prof. D. S. Jordan. pp. 398, 479. HUMAN REMAINS IN THE SHAELL-HEAPS OF THE on gril River, EAST FLORIDA. CANNIBALISM. By Prof. J. Wyma 3.
THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. By A. S. eked, ne With plate and cut. p. 414.
NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. By Frederick Brendel. p. 449.
HERBARIUM Cases. By Dr. C. C. Parry. With cut. p. 471.
CHARLES ROBERT Darwin. By Prof. Asa Gray. p. 473.
THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. By Dr. G. Lincecum. p. 513.
AZALEA VISCOSA, A FLYCATCHER. By W. W. ze p. 517.
On. THE ANTENNZ IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. By A. R. Grote, A.M. p.519
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. = Prof, P, d. Van pie
ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND PRIMITIVE NUMBER OF SPIRACLES IN INSECTS.
By A. S. Packard, Jr. p. 531. GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NorTH AMERICAN Birps. By J. A. Allen. p. 534. THE SUPPOSED AupITORY APPARATUS OF THE Mos- QUITO. a Bot A. M. Mayer. - Illustrated. p. is E GOSSAMER SPIDER. By Dr. G. Lincecum. p. 5
. ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN Hawks, ETC. By Dr. pine Coues, U.S.A.
596. THE AE aA oF Fries. I,II, I. By Dr. August Weissmann.
pp. 603, 661, 713. ADDREss OF PROF. JOSEPH LOVERING. pp. 612, 641.
ATIVE ON THE COTTON WORM OF THE SOUTHERN STATES (dae pe S Hiib.).
By Aug. R. piven p. 722.
Lire HISTORIES OF THE Protozoa. By A. S. Packard, Jr. Illustrated. ' p 728.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. A
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
The Systematic Position of the nL DELI ba llustrated) p. 48. North American Grasshoppers, p. 53. ritish Ma eaweeds, p. 54. Lub- bock’s Monograph of the Podure, p. 54. Kowd erman Botanical Manuals,
$ . The Zoologi cal Record for 1871, p. 180. n of the Echini, p. 215. Hayden’s Geology of the Territories P R p. 216. Girard’s Insects, p. 221. Solar Physics, p. 222. The Birth of Chemistry, p. 222. North American Moths, p. 223. Surveys west of the 100th Meridian, p. 302. Check List of Coleoptera, p. 303. Dictionary of Elevations of the United States, p. 303 lo oun
of Colorado, p. 3 Young’s Physical Geography, p. 353. lf Hours with the Microscope, p. 354. Field Ornithology, p. 418. The Butterflies of North Americ . De loridan Polyzoa, p. 421.
of North American Noctuid Moths, p. 421. The United States Fish Com- mission Report (Illustrated), p. 493. North American Flies, p. 497. The Unicellular Nature of the Tifis, p. 498. Siebold’s Anatomy of the Invertebrates, p. 499. Recent Publications on Ornithology, p. 541. es f North American Birds, p. 546. The Principles of Science, p. 628: S mon’s Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast and Amer- ican Whale-fishery, p. 632. The Geology of the Lower Amazonas (Illus- trated), p. 673. The original Distinction of the Testicle and Ovary, p. 680. Maps of Wheeler’s Expedition, 683. Physiology of the Circulation, p. 684. Bulletin of the Cornell areni p. 684. Manual of Metal- lurgy, p. 684. Introduction to General Biology, p. 749. Publications of Wheeler’s Survey, p. 749. The Geological Survey of Indiana, p. 749.
BOTANY.
Irritability of the Leaves of the Sundew, p. 55. Were the Fruits Made for Man, or Did Man piegi the Fruits? p. 116. The Fertilization of Gen- tians by Humble Bees, pp. 180, 226. ea me p.181. Investigations respecting the mel EAEN a Abutilon, p. 2 Abnormal Form o. sorus acrostichoides, p. 304. Rumex arakan ja p. 305. The Northern- most flowering Plants, p. 305. Thesmall-flowered seg in Michigan, p. 305. The Fresh-water Alge of North America, p. Aplectrum hyemale again, p. 307. Devlopment of Ferns wilteek eae p- 807. Lobelia syphilitic v. alba, p. 307. Sex in Plants, p. 355. A New Ribes, p. 358. Periodic Motions of Leaves and Petals, p. 359. Ascent of Sap in the Bark of Trees, p. 360. Botrychium lunaria Swartz, in Michi- gan, p. 360. Absorption of Ammonia by the aérial parts of Plants, p. 360. Geographical Distribution of the Cupulifere, p. 422. oom on the Influ- ence of Light on the Development of Plants, p. 425. r. Beardslee, p. 499. Double Thalictrum, p. 499. Dr. W. G. Farlow, a go Distribu- tion of Alpine Plants, p. 552.. Amount of Water contained in the differ- ent parts of a Plant, p. 553. Botany of Wilkes’ South Pacifc Exploring
vi CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII.
Expedition, p. 635. Influence of Forests on the Rainfall, p. 635. Insec- tivorous Plants, p. 684. istribution of American Woodlands, p. 687. Adoxa Moschatellina L., in Iowa, p. 690. Dispersion of Seeds by shoot- ing them off, p. 690. Botrychium lunaria Swartz, p. 691. Yucca filamen- tosa, p. 749. The Distinctive Features of Apple Flowers, p. 752.
ZOOLOGY.
A New Mgerian Maple Borer, p. 57. $ Spinous Fin i re a pangs p. 58. Capture of a Gigantic Squid at pence p- 120. w (?) Ægerian Maple Borer, p. 123. e Anatomy of Worms, E 12t. Doi in Missouri, p. 181. A New North praa Bird, p. Economic Ento-
mology, p. 189. Gigantic Cuttle- ocg 2s of laes p. 226. Laws of Geographical Variation in North American Mammals and Birds, p 227. The Habits of Polistes and eee ; p. 229. Notes on the Plant Lice, p. 221. A Straggler in the Ohio, p. 233. Assembling among Moths, p. 234. Organs of Hearing in Insects, p. 236. Change of Habit, p. 237. Spontaneous Gencration, p. 238. Discovery of the Water Thrush’s Nest in New England, p. 238. Two rare Owls from Arizona, p. 239. Avifauna of Colorado and Wyoming, p. 240. The Olive-sided Flycatcher, p. 240. A remarkable Peculiarity of DURIN urophasianus, p. 240. Ona Hummingbird new to our Fauna, p. 2 ccurrence of Telea Polyphe- mus in California.— A Correction, p. en Identity of our Hydra with European Species,,p. 244. Olive-sided Flycatcher, pp. 308, 309. Pet
New Jersey, p. 364. The Honey-ants, p. 365. Spizella Breweri (?) in Massachusetts, p. 366. The Chimney aie. Change i in Place of Nesting, p. 867. The Myriopod Cermatia poisonous, p. 368. Blind Crustacea, p. 368. Birds and Caterpillars, p. 368. A bs Hina Helix albolabris, p. 368. Note on esti d Insects in Collec s, p. 869. The Structure of Sponges, p. 425. ckel’s Embryonal 48 Abestia form of all Animals, p. 426. apitar ad Life of the Arctic Ocean, p. 42 w External Ovaries, p. 427. A Eras Beetle Pariato of the Beaver (with cut), p. 427. Tornaria not a larval Starfish, but the Young of a ` orm, p.429. The White-necked bic »p. 429. R elation of the Celen- terates and Echinoderms, p. 430. New Carboniferous Myriopods from Nova Scotia, p. 430. The Discovery of the Origin of the Sting of the Bee, p. 431. Deep Sea Dredgings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, p. 481. The Mouth Parts of the Dragon Fly, p. 432. A New Type of Snakes, p- 432 otice of a Species of Tern new to the Atlantic Coast of North
p- 43 s orth America, p. 434. On Some of the Evidences of Life in Great Salt Lake, p. 435. English Sparrows, p. 486. A New Group of Cyprinidae, p- 436. A Horned Elotherium, p. 437. The Skunk, p. 437. The Redheaded Woodpecker in Maine, p. 437. Menobranchus edible, p. 488. New Crus- tacea of the Sikes Josephine Expedition, p. 438. Special Mode of De- ve of certain Batrachians, p. 438. The Paleontological History of
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. vii
Trilobites, etc., as opposed by Barrande, to the Evolution Theory, p. 439. e Whale Lice, p. 441. New Species of North American
501. The “Hateful” Grasshopper in New England, p. 502. The Kinglets in New Jersey, p. 502. Zoology in Belgium, p. 503. Recent Researches - on Termites and Stingless Honey-bees, p. 553. The European House Sparrow, p. 556. Fish Culture in the Olden Time, p. 557. The Influence of the Nerves upon the as of Color of Fish and Crustacea, p. 559. The Cotton Worm, p. 562. Lar of Anopthalmus and Adelops, p. 562. New Variety of Blue Srk t p. yo 63. Dimorphism in Gall Flies, p. 563. Sweet Scented Ants, p. 564. Robber Ants, p. 564. Ichneumon Parasites of Anthrenus Larve, p. 564. Larvæ of Membracis serving as milk cattle to a Bee, p. 565. e Snow Goose, p. 636. Transformations of our Moths (illustrated), p. 691. English Sparrows, p. 692. Monstrosities among Beetles, p. 693. Note on the Synonymy of Telea Polyphemus, p. 753. The Reversion of Thoroughbred Animals, p. 754. Deep Sea Explora- tions, p. 755. The Chestnut sided Warbler, p. 756. Embryology oe the Brachiopods, p. 756. etamorphoses of the Hair Worm, p. 757. ew Order of Hydrozoa, p. 757. Birds of Kansas, p. 757. Ostrich Etter ie p. 757. Case of a Dog nursing a Kitten, p. 758.
GEOLOGY. Return of Professor uae Expedition, p. 58. The N. W. Wyoming Expedition, p. 12 eys in the American Miocene, p. 125. The
Genus Peoh opor, p- 56 Remains of tad Plants in the Lower Silu-
rian, p. 190. The great Lava-flood of the West, p. 244. Deep-sea Ex- plorations, p. 369. The Carboniferous Formation of South America, p-
41. Analogy of the Tertiary Fauna of France to the Temperate Regions d America, p. 442. Small size of the cage in Tertiary Mammals, p. 503. Deep Sea Soundings, p. 504. Deep sea Temperature in the Antarctic Sea, p. 637. Origin of the Valley of so Rhine, p. 637. Supposed Lower Silurian Land Plants, p. 693. European Fossil Cetacea, p. 694.
ANTHROPOLOGY. The Manufacture of Pottery by the Indians (I KE p- 245. The rries of Rhamnus croceus as Indian Food, p. 2 A human Skeleton from the Diluvium, p. 370. The Pygmies of at Attics: p. 443. Trog- lodytes in Alaska, p. 505. Egyptian Archæology, p. 506. A true Geogra- phy of the Brain, p. 565. Rate of Growth in Man, p. 567. Extent of the Ancient Civilization of Peru, p.-637. Restoration of Indian Pottery, p.
694. The Earthworks of Fort Ancient, p. 759.
MICROSCOPY.
A New Section Cutter (Illustrated), p.59. A New Form of Microtome (Illustrated), p. 126. Embedding Tissues for Sections, p. 191. Dissecting Embryos, p. 191. Holman’s Siphon Slide (Jllustrated), p. 248. Structure
viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII.
of the Potato, p. 248. Microscopic Drawing, p. 249. Air-cells in a float- ing Leaf, p. 250. Life of Hæmatozoa, p. 250. Finding the chemical Focus in a EEE p. 251. A Spherical Diaphragm, p. 252. Leaf Sections, p. 252. Another Erector, p. 252. Cements, p.252. Auto- microscopy, p. 253. Measuring the growth-rate of Plants, p. 253. A re- volving Amplifier, p. 253. Quieting ees p. 253. On the Structure of iatoms, p. 309. Unmounted Objects, p. 316. Arranging Diatomacese (Illustrated), p. 371. Histology, p. 373. a sachet of the Saproleg- iei, p. 374. Section Cutters, p. 375. Lecture Illustrations of Micro- scopic Objects, p. 375. ura Scales, p. 376. Lengthened Immersion be, p. 376. Automatic Turntable, p.376. Origin of Blood Corpuscles, p- 376. Substitute for the Camera lucida, p. 377. Amphipleura pellucida in dots, p. 443. On Circulatory Movements in Vaucheria, p. 444. Im- provements in Insect Mounting, p. 507. Measuring Angular Apertures, p. 508. Cataloguing Microscopic ie p. 509. Sand-blast Cells, p 510. Another Microscopical Cement, p. 510. New Application of Stain- ing to Pathology, p. 511. New Rotating Microscope, p 567. Mounting Diatoms, p. 568. Blood Crystals, p. 568. Tolles’ New Immersion 1-6th, p. 568. Spheraphides in Tea Leaves, p. 638. New Microscopical Societies, p. 638. dost of the Blood in Tila: p. 638. Achromatic Bull’s Eye ae r, p.638. Embedding Tissues, p. 639. Glycerine Mounting, p- eaded Silica Films, p. 696. Cell-culture in the Study of Fungi, p. s Handling Diatoms, p. 697. Reproduction of Desmids, p. 698. Angular Apertures, p. 698. A Finder for Microscopes with plain stage, p. 700. The Sremo Prism as a substitute for the Mirror for trans- mitted light, p. 700. ee tak for giving pressure to objects while dry- ing, p. 700. The new Type Plate, p. 701. Fixing Diatoms, p. 701. The Podura Scale, p. 702. itapa of the Rhizopods, p. 761. OTES.—Pages 62, 128, 191, my 316, 377, 445, 511, 569, 639, 702, 762.
KS oki b Pii 64, ic 192, 256, en 384, 448, 512, 576, 704,765. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. — Page 12
ERRATA.
Page 58, line 10, for “ Germədius” read Genn sie Page 114, line 3 from bottom. for * arising ” read arriving. Page 115, for “ Thorne” read Th . Page 237, last line, for “I. J. Wyman” . Wyman. Pare 358, in the description of Ribes Wolfii, im- mediately after sp. n. insert (R. Sanguineum Pu . Vari Watson, 381 in King’s Report, vol. v, gi 100) and erase “3 to 6 feet high » into 2 to 4 feet high. Page 482, after the d “c” read “ Branchlets mostly tapering to base,” omitting * oppo-
- site and.” Page 483, line 30 from at for “g” read q. Page 485, line 16 from top, for. ef” read f?. Page 491, for numbers ‘150, 151, 152, 153. etc., to 194,” read Nos. 149(2), 150, 151, 152, etc., to 198, each number having been by accident ngeses ard, thus not
ding with the references above. Thus Ulva Lactuca should fas No. 161 in- stead of No. 162.’ Page — line 15 from top, ae “ slip” wey slit. 1 from bottom, insert a comma after “century.” Page 547, 10th line from bottom, for “of which the latter two,” re ay of which latter two. Page 551, a line from bottom, for “ subi” read subis; 4th line from bottom, insert “ no” before “similar.” Page 552, for “J. S. Merrill” read J. C. Merrill.
Plate. P 1,2. Brontotherium ingens Marsh, .
ILLUSTRATIONS.
LIST OF PLATES.
age. 84
LIST OF WOOD-CUTS.
Lingula pyramidata, . TT section of Lin-
Transverse. section “of an- d
Transverse section of miol: e
Molluscan archet etype. mbryo of Lamellibranch-
iate,
Embry
ancl inet pe Brachiopods, ; 3 Foe of Lingula p Sophelis. a ‘collar of sini s
Hend ors Rabells Longitudinal po Rae of Lin- Psa and A = “pre: ss Geaions of arm mphi- aoe and Lingala, po various shells and Saesouatal organs of worms, PES n orgona of Brach- dig ait organ of ‘Alciope at Terebratulina, . Section cutter, Deas of arm of squid,
> gore Ea a E Va eg
ealii, . . . Gerecnt of Loligo Pealii, >
Turhan Geyser. ž z : ep es Geyser near the
Basins of Hot Springs, : enopon icicola, é
Goniodes I : Goniodes ‘
eee 6 eee ee eee 8.
Page. 44
H
me È
6 & AAAS SSS
Plate. Page. 3. Early Stages of the Lobster, . 416 No. Page. 65. Nirmus buteonivorus, . . 220 66. ne 1 teem E 67. jem e Tic see = 68. American Argas, Cee ee ee 69-70. Indian implements, r 245 71. TIRS slide, E ae 72. Aphelinus of apple scale 73. Oro chia: agilis, F 289 74. Miohip ta annectens, 290 75. Foo nes of Orohippus, recone Hipparion, & quus, 292 76-77 Preservation of caterpil- š 322 78. A oarous amænus, é 334 7 Ins lapse a arranging Diato + 2 ee 81. Paba of iaten. bre a 415 82. Ap Bae trong oe os) 8 83. Herbarium a CER 84, Lern omy. ° Pee EI § 85-86. Cirrhatulus grandis, . . . 494 87. Clymen eaters oo a y 408 88. Euchone, . . es ae 89. éa of com =s MO 90. Megalops of raag crab, 495 91. Japyx solifu 501 92-100. Geological S aadA of the ee Amazonas, 101. graig of Cælodasys unicor- š 691 102. eave t TRA hi 7. Wo ‘aa . 691 of Nadata gibbosa,. 691 104-105. Larva of Notodonta,. . . 691 106. Larva of Ce 692 107. a rg deridens, 692 i Cucullia speyeri 692 «| 692 110-125. stivation of nem - 706-709 126. athybius Hæckelii, . . . 730 127. Protomonas amyli, ... 7323 128. yxa auran oo e S 129. Vamppyrellas pirogyre, . . 735 = oo Bane m radians, eo T s regarina gigantea, . . . 1738 132. Abi OA E ee 133. Amoeba sphærococcus, . . 744 134. palustris, eae 135. Collosphera spinosa,. . . 47
ee E
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
Vol. VITI.— JANUARY, 1874.— No. 1. COEPORDOD o NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE.
BY W. G. FARLOW, M.D.
PART I. SWEDEN.
SwEDEN, and especially Upsala, is a sort of botanical Mecca, and, indeed, no one who has occasion to travel in the north of Europe would willingly refrain from visiting the tomb of Linnæus.
‘I reached this country by way of Copenhagen, which fine city, as well as Hamburg I was obliged to hurry through, taking merely a glimpse of the Botanical and Zoological Gardens. From Copenhagen I crossed over to Malmoe in Sweden, and took the train to the old university town of Lund, where the distinguished algologist, Agardh, is professor, as was his father before him. ‘The town is, indeed, old and primitive: and-from the astonishment of the natives one would suppose that I was the first American ever seen there. Bs
A pretty, but to me decidedly unintelligible chamber-maid managed after a while to understand that I wanted a room. Unfortunately, there was no lock to the door, and servant after servant entered the room without going through the ceremony of knocking, and inspected me and my luggage. At length, a waiter appeared who spoke a little German and from him I learned that Prof. Agardh was in the city. With a porter to carry my large package of algæ, I made my way to his house, before the door of
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEM _ SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, suet 1 :
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VII. ql)
2 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE.
which, and in the: entries, juniper twigs were spread, a universal custom in Sweden. I found the professor at home and expecting me. In personal appearance he is tall, and, as they say, aristo- cratic looking (in fact he is called “Lord Agardh” by the stu- dents) ; he has bright twinkling eyes and a white mustache. He speaks and writes English remarkably well. He is a member of the Reichstag, and so goes to Stockholm in the winter. His herba- rium, with the exception of the largest species, is in his private house. The larger specimens are kept at the building in the new botanical garden. An examination of the specimens I had brought was preluded by an invitation to take a glass of Cognac and soda-water, a favorite beverage in this region. My valise being unpacked, we set to work. Amongst the lot were several plants new to him from America, and some entirely new, particu- larly amongst my Oregon and California species ; but this is hardly a proper time to notice néw species. He seemed to be particu- larly interested in a specimen of Pikea Oalifornica, which plant he had never seen, although he had himself added other members to
the genus. A Chordaria from Oregon, supposed by Agardh to be
new, I have since discovered, from an examination of the Ruprecht collection in St. Petersburg, to be C. abietina of Ruprecht, still unpublished.
The botanical department of the university is under the direc- —
tion of Professor Agardh, assistant Professor Areschoug, nephew
of the professor of the same name at Upsala, and Dr. Berghen, d
privat-docent, who has more especially studied mosses and was associated with Professor Theo. Fries of Upsala in his Spitz- bergen journey. Dr. Areschoug speaks very little English, but delightfully slow German. Dr. Berghen speaks both English and
German. He is going to New Zealand next year, and is to return n
by way of California.
The old botanical garden opposite the cathedral is now changed into a pleasure ground. The new garden is yet in its infancy, but the hot-houses are on a scale not to be seen in any American university. It seems strange to me that in these cold northern
countries, among a comparatively poor people, the universities
_are provided with gardens and hot-houses which, if they belonged ` to most American universities, would be considered something
Pee ay Se ae
wonderful. In fact, except in Berlin and Munich, I have seen i
no garden in Germany, so far as the hot-houses are concerned,
wy
NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 3
equal to those at Lund. Near the entrance of the garden is a brick building containing a lecture room, laboratory, and herba- rium. In passing through the hall a most decided and congenial aroma of seaweed was perceived. It appears that Professor Agardh keeps a woman pretty constantly employed in soaking out and mounting rough-dried specimens. During my visit, she was engaged on a lot of algz sent by Dr. Ferd. Müller of Australia, and, as I entered the room, she was fishing up a specimen of Pha- celocarpus Labillardieri. In this building are kept large specimens of Ecklonia, Macrocystis, Durvillea, etc., several feet long, mounted on very thick card-board. That is certainly the only way of getting any idea how such plants really look.
Lund lies in the large plain of Sarnia, with mountains visible in the distance. This is decidedly the most fertile part of Sweden, and the grain crop is very large. I made an excursion with Dr. Berghen to a place called Vogelsang, made classic by the visits of Linnæus. The meadows and knolls were very beautiful with centaurez and orchids, and farther off one could see the grain fields brilliant with the usual amount of poppies, chrysanthemums, and bachelor’s buttons, the characteristic “ corn-weeds” of Europe.
From Lund to Stockholm is a rather long journey, particularly if one has lately been travelling in Germany. The botanists of Stockholm were all away for the vacation. So, after visiting the museum and galleries, which, although good, are not remarkable, and enjoying for a day or two this picturesque and agreeable city and its surroundings, I went on to Upsala, in the slowest train I ever saw. Upsala is not: so beautifully situated, but is in most respects more interesting than Lund. The number of students is fifteen hundred, three times as great as at Lund. Many of the students are poor and are obliged to spend the vacations in Upsala, only returning home at the completion of their studies. They are divided according to the nations or provinces of Sweden, each of which has a club house, that of the Stockholm-nation being the finest. Each nation has also a lot and monument in the cemetery, and most of the students who die at Upsala are buried there, as it is a long journey to some of the provinces. In fact, Americans who judge of European distances from Great Britain and Germany are astonished at the size of N orway and Sweden. Professor Schibler of Christiania told me that it was half as far
4 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE.
from Christiania to thé northernmost point of Norway as from Christiania to Rome.
On my arrival I called at once on the venerable Professor Fries. I found him at home, surrounded by his children and grand- children, assembled to celebrate his seventy-eighth birthday. Only one of his family was absent, a son who lives in Florida. He welcomed me warmly, and regretted that he was too feeble to show me Upsala. He spoke German, but so slowly that it was difficult to follow him. His daughters spoke English; the youngest, who is unmarried, very well. He wears the traditional long black coat and skull-cap, and has the venerable appearance and benign ex- pression, which is shown in the photograph of himself and the amiable Madame Fries, which I remember in Professor Gray’s collection. Professor Fries directed me to the college building where his son resides, and told me that he would be glad to act as my escort in Upsala. The way to the laboratory was through
very classic grounds. Just back of the castle is the Library, Car- r
olina Rediviva, with an avenue to the right leading to the Obelisk and the Cathedral. Here are some fine trees, and it has been the
favorite walk of many distinguished professors. Back of the i library is a large grove with a cemetery in which are buried Wahl- enberg and Thunberg. In the grove and cemetery are a number of Runic monuments, and through the centre of the grove runs a broad avenue to the laboratory, in the second story of which sev- —
eral of the professors have suites of rooms. Not finding Professor Fries at home I called again the next morning.
The younger Professor Theodore Fries, stout and robust, and
not the least like his father in personal appearance, kindly offered
to be my guide in the city. The situation of Upsala is bleak and — even dismal, a single hill on which stands the cathedral, castle and university buildings, in the midst of a wide plain. The
cathedral, an ancient brick structure, has no great claims to
beauty, but is chiefly interesting on account of the tombs and relics contained in it. The tomb of Gustav Vasa is the lion of 3 the place, but to all naturalists the tomb of Linnæus, of black — marble with a medallion, is the chief attraction. The design is simple, and in striking contrast to the elaborate sculptures sacred to the memory of some very noble but now completely forgotten individuals. In front of the cathedral is a promenade respected %
*
co
ST ee et ae Se Sot
NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 5
by the inhabitants as the favorite resort of the professors. The promenade ends at the library, the first of the university buildings, back of which, and separated from it by a grove in which are stones with curious Runic inscriptions, is a large building con- taining the university laboratories. Close by is the Botanical Garden, where strangers are shown Linnzus’s myrtle, which is still kept alive for the purpose of supplying travellers with relics. In this way the more valuable mementoes of Linnzeus are preserved from the ravages of curiosity hunters. In the hall of the herba- rium building is a marble statue of the father of botany, in a sitting posture, by Byström. The expression of the face is ex- tremely beautiful, but unfortunately not very much like Linneus, . if we are to trust the portrait at Stockholm, which was considered an excellent likeness. Professor Areschoug, best known by his algological writings, resides close to the garden. He is a rather short, thick-set man, and in his method of study is decidedly Ger- man. is collection of microscopic preparations of alge is large, and the preparations are beautifully mounted. _ Linneus’ city house, at the old Botanic Garden, is still to be seen, nearly unaltered, but it contains no relics of its distinguished owner. There are some, however, at his country house at Ham- marby, five miles from town, and in the little building near it which contained his herbarium and museum. A good idea of these and of all the souvenirs of Linnzus is to be had from a series of fif- teen small photographs, with an accompanying sheet of letter press, which were published a few years ago, and are still on sale. The collection was advertised at the time in most of the botanical journals, is not expensive, and could readily be obtained, I pre- sume, by those who would be interested in these memorials. A visit to Upsala is incomplete without an excursion to the tombs of Thor, Frei and Odin, three mounds a short distance from the town. To make the scene more impressive, the Swedish urchins roll over and over down the mounds for a slight gratuity. Ata restaurant near by, one is also expected to drink mead out of horns mounted with silver and inscribed with the names of princes and nobles who drank heavily from them in days of yore.
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH.
BY C. HARTE MERRIAM.
I. SOUTH CAROLINA.
Tue town of Aiken is situated in the dry, sandy ‘“‘ Pine Barrens” of southern South Carolina. It is a great resort for invalids (es- pecially for those suffering from pulmonary diseases), the climate being dry and healthful. It is the highest point on the Charles- ton railroad, having an altitude of over six hundred feet, and there are no streams or swamps in the vicinity. ‘There is no water near excepting an exceedingly small stream which flows into a little pond two miles distant, the outlet of which empties into several larger ponds between Graniteville and Langley, five and eight miles west of the town.
~The woods, which consist mainly of pine trees, abound with bright green lizards (Anolius Carolinensis), which, like the cha- meleon, possess the power of changing their color to a greenish- yellow and a dark reddish-brown.. There is also another species of lizard (Scleroporus undulatus), which somewhat resembles the “ horned toad” of our western plains; it is longer, however, and more slender and its throat and the sides of its belly are of a bright metallic greenish-blue color. Both of these species run about on old logs and rail fences and seem to take especial delight in climb- ing among the fragrant jessamines (Gelsemium sempervirens), which are very abundant in some parts of the woods. When dis-
turbed they generally take to some tree, which they climb with —
astonishing rapidity; the back of the latter species so closely resembles the bark as to be scarcely distinguishable from it.
To the entomologist, Aiken may prove a more fruitful locality than to the ornithologist, since there are many bright colored and
beautiful species of butterflies; but even these lose their attrac-
tions when compared with the endless varieties and curiously _ formed species of Coleoptera. One species of the latter in partic- ular (Phaneus carnifex) reminds us of the Brazilian beetles ; it is about three-quarters of an inch long, is of the brightest green color, _ and has a large reddish violet shield on the fore part of its back, cane ic which grows an immense horn that hangs over the back.
a A Bae a
iio ne ea ee
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 7
Now, after having given the readers of the NATURALIST a gen- eral idea of the locality, I will proceed to consider my more par- ticular friends, the birds.
Arriving at Aiken on the 14th of March, I commenced collecting on the same day, and remained there three weeks, during which time one hundred and fifty-three specimens were prepared. Owing to the unusual tardiness of the season, many, and in fact most, of the spring birds had not arrived up to the time of leaving. About the 14th of March, I found the yellow-rumped warbler (Dendreca coronata) very abundant: on the 17th the pine-creeping warbler (D. pinus) first made its appearance, after which time it was quite common ; it was very appropriately named the pine-creeping war- bler, as I never, except on one occasion, saw it alight, even for an instant, on anything but a pine tree; here it would sit by the hour and warble out its sweet song. On the 21st, I heard a delicate chirp above my head, and, looking up, saw a small bird on the top of one of the tallest pine trees; it was too high to be recog- nized, so I shot it, and found to my great delight that it was the yellow-throated warbler (D. Dominica). The black and white creeper (Mniotilta varia) was seen on the 18th, from which time afterwards it was common. A few Maryland yellow-throats (Geo- eae trichas) arrived on the 31st, but were not numerous. The hermit thrush ( Turdus Pallasii) and the robin (Planesticus migra- oe were quite plentiful when I arrived. Mocking birds ( Mi- mus polyglottus) did not become numerous until about the 25th, after which time they “ fairly filled the air with their rich medley of inexhaustibly varied notes, the singers’ leaping in restless ecstasy from branch to branch, with drooping wings and spread tail, or flitting from thicket to thicket as they sang.” I observed but one eat-bird (Galeoscoptes Carolinensis) and that was on the 4th of April; the brown thrush or long-tailed thrasher (Harpo- rhynchus rufus) was very common on and after March 19th.
I shot a pewee or pheebe bird (Sayornis fuscus) on the 15th, after which time they were often seen. Our common kingbird, or beebird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) arrived on the 4th of April, when it immediately commenced its usual noisy abuse of all the other species, both large and small, especially the former. On the 22d, I shot one blue-headed vireo ( Vireo solitarius), which was the only one seen; the white-eyed vireo ( V. Noveboracensis), how- ever, was quite common on and after the 27th. The great Carolina
Sm.
8 3 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH.
wren (Thryothorus Ludovicianus), though a resident, was first ob- ` served about the 27th, after which time its pleasant song was often heard. The blue-gray gnatcatchers (Polioptila coerulea) arrived on the 21st, and soon became very common; the ruby-crowned kinglets (Regulus calendula) appeared on the same day, and were equally numerous. Rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serri-
pennis), in large numbers, arrived about the 22d. Hawks of all `
kinds were rare; one fish hawk (Pandion Carolinensis) was ob- served at Langley’s Pond eight miles below here, and occasionally a Buteo was seen sailing above Aiken, but too high for the spe- cies to be determined. Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) were quite plenti- ful and were probably resident ; they commenced nesting about the Ist of April, as did the blue jays and Carolina chickadees. I shot one loggerhead shrike (Collurio Ludovicianus) ; this species was quite rare. The common yellow bird (Chrysomitris tristis) was occasionally met with, and the pine finch (O. pinus) was very abundant. Chipping sparrows (Spizella socialis) were very plenti- ful, as were the field sparrows (S. pusilla), song sparrows ( Melo-
spiza melodia), white-throated sparrows ‘Zomcivighia albicollis),
lack or common snowbirds (Junco hyemalis), and the sagittis bunting (Pooecetes gramineus). The following is a list of the birds observed at Aiken, South Carolina, between March 14th and April dth, 1873. — Turdus Pallasii Cab. (Hermit Thrush), abundant. pas e procured. Planesticus migra: tona a rani (Co ommon Robin), ¢
S poly g Bird), arrived koas March on common. 1 spn. aleoscoptes Cc arolinensis Baird ( (Cat Bird), arrd. April 4, r BA sialis Baird (Binebird), ; abundant. 268 spns.
Mar. 21st, ae 6 spns. Polioptila cærulea Sclat. (Blue-gray Gnatcatcher) stig March 2ist 4spns.
ry numerous. Parus Carolinensis Aud. (Carolina Chicka adee), common. 4spn Sitta Car Carolinensis Gm elin (White-bellied a "a raok. 2 spns. la Lath ei
- Sitta
\
Certhia A ica o ó ns
Thryothorus Ludovicianus bth (Gt. Carolina fits ic common. 2spns.
Geothlypis trichas Cab. (Maryland Yellow-throat), not common. om spn. ndreeca coronata Gray (Yellow-rumped Warbler), very com:
8 spns. Dendræca pinus Baird an Warbler), arrd. March Pa common, 18 spns.
TIE PE] r
v-throated Warbl ler), — arg she d spn. ugh com
i >
ST RM Te OS ea eS eee” ee ONSET Le a ee ee, eT, i
Fies 0 Noveboracensis Bonap. (White-eyed o> arrd. March 27, very common. 3
Vireo ‘tices Vieill. (Blue-headed Vireo), arra. March 22, rare. 1spn. Collurio Lu dovicianus Bair wa (Loggerhead ), rare. pn Chrysomitris tristis Bonap. eres not common. 2 spns,
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 9
Chrysomitris pinus Bonap. (Pine Finch), very abundant. 9 spns. Boe een |, rcammesea coy ss ay-winges Fine aia ponm on. 38 rrow), datik 6 spns.
Junco hyemalis Sclat. sc ela common. 28 Spizella pusilla Bonap. (Field Sparrow), comm N spns. ap tai Bonap. (Chipping Sparrow), common. 2 spns. Melospiza m Baird (Song Sparrow i cme: 2 spns. Melospiza oa s Baird ( ather common. 1 spn. Cardinalis Virginianus Bonap. (Redbird), common. 6 — Pipilo erythrophthalmus Vieill. (Chewink), common. teni Agelæus phæniceus Vieill. (Red- ar ms ape not common. 1 spn. ae magna Sw. (Meadow Lark), n
can
cristata Sw. (Blue Jay), comm 4p Cory gesi ifr agus Mig (Fish Crow), cake T is Baird (King cua cat April 4, common. 1spn. 3
n A ornis 1s fundies Baird serii com o
Picus villosus Linn iry Cker), ra Pi alis Vieill. (Red-cockaded Woodpecker), rare. Sphyropicus varius Baird (Yellow-bellied Woodpecker), common. 4 spns. Melanerpes erythrocephalus Sw. (Yellow-bellied Woodpec pe ads aay common. 1 spn. S —— Sse Miden iar common. 2spns. Pigeon Hawk), rare. 1 spn. Tinnunculus sparverius Vieill. g eias sates not common. 1 spn. Cathartes aura Illig. (Turkey Buzzard), common. 1 spn. Cat tus Lesson (Black Vulture), not co Zenzdura Carolinensis Bonap. (Comt Dove), common. 2 spns. Ortyx Virginianus Bonap. (Common Quail), abundant des virescens Bonap. (Green Heron), not on. lspn. Ægialitis vociferus Cassin (Kildeer), not common. Philohela minor Gray (American Wi ) rare. lari 5; not common
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING.
BY DR. C. C. PARRY.
i No. 1.
Havine been connected with the exploring expedition of Captain W. A. Jones into Northwestern Wyoming during the past season (1873), the botanical results have proved of such unexpected in- terest that I have obtained the permission of Captain Jones to anticipate the more detailed official report by preparing for imme- diate publication a brief sketch of the general botanical features of the region passed over, with notices of rare plants and descrip- tions of new species collected on the route.
Fort Bripcer To Camp Brown. Leaving the point of rendez- vous at Fort Bridger on the 12th of June, our route followed a
~
10 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING.
northeasterly course over Green River basin, thence skirting along the southern spurs of the Wind River range. The main conti- nental divide was crossed at South Pass. From this point fol- lowing a more direct northerly course we reached Camp Brown in the Wind River valley on July Ist.
The chief botanical interest on this portion of our route was comprised in the many suggestive associations with the early dis- coveries of Nuttall nearly forty years previous. Though this route has been repeatedly traversed by exploring parties, lying in fact on the well-beaten track of western emigrant travel pre- vious to the construction of the Pacific Railroad, not a few of the plants then collected and described have remained up to this time desiderata in herbaria.
Unusually copious spring rains previous to our journey had freshened the vegetation of these usually arid tracts, so that our necessarily slow and tedious marches, encumbered by a heavily laden wagon train, were enlivened (at least to the botanist) by unwonted verdure. Even the repulsive “ sage plains” and “ grease wood” flats, so monotonous and forbidding to the ordinary trav- eller, yielded up unexpected treasures of rare plants. Among these the evanescent annuals were in great profusion, including Cleome aurea Hook., Calyptridium roseum S. Watson, GZnothera
Andina Nutt., @nothera scapoidea Nutt., Astragalus Geyeri Gray, Astragalus pictus Gray, Chenactis Douglasii H. & A., Plantago — Patagonica Jacq., Gilia inconspicua Dougl., and Oxytheca dendro- idea Nutt. In the moist grassy valley of Little Sandy were also
found quite abundantly Capsella divaricata Walp. and Gentiana humilis Stev., heretofore overlooked by collectors in this region.
Of perennial plants, serving somewhat to relieve the prevalent and monotonous growth of Artemisia, Tetradymia and Linosyris, ~ _ comprising what is popularly known as “wild sage,” and the equally forbidding .Chenopodiaceous shrubs confounded under the a common term of “ grease-wood,” may be noted several species of — ~~ including A. Purshii Dougl., A. lotiflorus Hook, A» glareosus Dougl., A. junceus Nutt., and now collected for the first ,
time since Nuttall’s original discovery, A. pubentissimus Nutt.
and A. flavus Nutt., the former a not uncommon roadside plant, |
and the latter quite abundant along the margins of dry water- courses, at the foot of steep clay buttes. ™ m knolls adjoining Green River still another i inter-
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. TL
-e Nuttallian plant was rediscovered, Tanacetum Nuttallii Torr. & Gray, and growing in close proximity with this was found Vesicaria Alpina Nutt., both probably near the original station of Nuttall.
Nearly everywhere over this district in exposed situations we meet with Eriogonum ovalifolium Nutt., forming dense silvery cushions, its close globular heads of flowers exhibiting-a great variety of tints from pure white to dark brown. Almost equally abundant on gravelly slopes also occur Aplopappus acaulis Gray, and Astragalus simplicifolius. Gray, presenting a neat contrast of colors in their bright yellow and blue flowers, resting in mats of dark green and silvery foliage.
Quite constantly associated in growth with Astragalus flavus Nutt. is a showy asteroid plant with large white flowers, disposed in flattened summits surmounting the dull colored tomentose leaves. This plant, according to Dr. Gray, is closely allied to or perhaps identical with the Xylorhiza villosa Nutt. (Aster Xylorhiza Torr. & Gray). In view of the discrepancy in many respects between
this plant and that described by Nuttall, Dr. Gray has thought -
proper to characterize it as a new species, Aster Parryi.
Among other plants worthy of note in this district may be enumerated Delphinium Menziesii DC., Sisymbrium junceum Bieb., Viola Nuttallii Pursh, Cymopterus montanus Nutt., Cym- opterus Fendleri Gray, Antennaria dimorpha Nutt., Artemisia pedatifida Nutt., Phlox longifolia Nutt., Phlox canescens Torr. & Gray, Castilleia parviflora Bong. o Pentstemon humilis Nutt., and Gilia pungens Benth.
On reaching the higher ground forming the eastern rim of the Green River basin, which leads by an easy pass, at an average ele- vation of seven thousand feet above the sea level, from the Pacific to the Atlantic slope, the prevalent desert growth gives place to -a vegetation partaking of a sub-alpine character. This district comprises the botanical localities designated by Nuttall as “ dry and lofty hills in the central range of the Rocky Mountains.”
Here accordingly we again come within the range of these early discoveries in re-collecting such choice plants as Draba Alpina L., var. densifolia, Lepidium montanum Nutt., Trifolium Andinum Nutt., Trifolium gymnocarpon Nutt., Astragalus campestris Gray,
Oxytropis lagopus Nutt., and Phlox bryoides Nutt. Here also we meet for the first time, probably near its south- eastern limits, the interesting Lewisia rediviva Pursh. This
-
collect their summer tribute of melted snow, and cleave their way
senting smooth tabled summits, bedded with rich grasses inter- the close similarity of their flowers being curiously contrasted
are irregularly gashed to resemble forms of the other. Besides
wa of this renege Gronia Fremontii Torr., Arenaria
12 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING.
becomes much more abundant farther north in the Wind River valley, and we were thus afforded an opportunity to observe this plant through its flowering and fruiting stages, extending from the latter part of June to the middle of July. After this latter period its matured capsules are detached and blown away, leaving no trace of the plant exposed to view, till the following spring develops the rosette of radical leaves, by which the Indians are guided in procuring their supplies of this palatable and nutritious root. Recent attempts have been made to introduce this showy plant into our gardens, where it would prove quite an acquisition.
rubbery is here represented mainly by Rosacece, including Amelanchier Canadensis Torr. & Gray, Potentilla fruticosa L., Purshii tridentata DC., Ribes cereum Dougl., but we look in vain, in apparently favorable localities, for the forms so well known in the mountain range farther south in Colorado of Ribes deliciosus Torr., Cercocarpus parvifolius Nutt., or Jamesia Americana Torr. & Gray.
The scanty pine growth includes chiefly Pinus flexilis James, with an occasional Song of Abies Douglasii Lindl., and Juniperus Virginiana L.
The southeastern spurs of the Wind River range present a sut- cession of steep, grassy slopes agreeably interspersed with pine- clad ridges. Through numberless channels the mountain streams
to the lower valleys through deep gorges, disclosing in steep mural faces the structure and succession of the underlying, highly in- clined, rocky strata. The lower undulating slopes, forming the natural divides between the numerous watercourses tributary to the main valley of Wind River, form irregular ridges often pre-
spersed with gaily colored flowers. Conspicuous among the latter are the bright golden-yellow heads of Balsamorhiza Hookeri Nutt., and Balsamorhiza sagittata Nutt., growing promiscuousl,
with their diverse foliage ; even in the latter case, however, a ten- dency to assimilate (perhaps due to hybridization) is occasionally observed, in which the sharply hastate leaves of the latter species
> everywhere obtrusive forms, we may also note as chara
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 13
tropis campestris L., Lupinus sericeus Pursh, Hedysarum Mack- enzii Rich., Eriogonum flavum Nutt., and Calochortus Gunnisoni Watson. On all the high rocky ridges of this section a charming variety of Phlox Douglasii Hook. is met with, forming close, flat- tened cushions, and a profusion of pure porcelain-white fragrant flowers.
Along the borders of streams, with the prevalent willow growth, we find Betula occidentalis Hook., Alnus incana Willd., and in the larger valleys Eleagnus argenteus Nutt.
On the steeper mountain slopes, before alluded to as presenting an agreeable alternation of meadow and woodland, the smooth grassy expanses of the higher elevations, reaching an altitude of nine thousand feet above the sea level, reveal a distinctly subal- pine vegetation. We accordingly here encounter such well known forms as Saxifraga nivalis L., Eritrichium aretioides DC., Pole- monium confertum Gray, Lloydia serotina Reich., while appar- ently more distinctly characteristic of this particalas range we note Townsendia spathulata Nutt., Townsendia scapigera D. C. Eaton and Bupleurum ranunculoides L.
In the wooded districts Pinus flexilis is irregularly mingled with Pinus ponderosa and Abies Douglasii, while Pinus contorta forms
the almost exclusive growth of the interior ridges and alpine leys. After passing the first series of steep ridges, which gen- -erally present an abrupt escarpment towards the main axis of the range, the interior valleys are spread out in the form of irregular basins, bordered by deep pine woods. Within these timbered recesses we occasionally encounter small grassy parks, or alpine bogs occupied by a close, clumpy growth of willows. Through these, course clear mountain streams generally hidden from view by overhanging vegetation. During the season of melting snow in the early summer months, these meadows frequently conceal treacherous bogs greatly impeding travel, while small ponds and occasional permanent lakes are not infrequent. In this variety of surface exposure, limited in every direction by irregular, rocky ridges, variously set off with extensive snow drifts, we have all the conditions of a most attractive mountain flora
We accordingly find here in somewhat catia association the following plants :— Draba Alpina L., Lupinus cespitosus Nutt., Hedysarum boreale Nutt., Astragalus Alpinus L., Oxytropis cam- pestris L., Oxytropis viscida Nutt.? (or a species near it), Sedum stenopetalum Ph., Sedum rhodanthum Gray, Actinella grandiflora
`
` glauca L., Synthyris plantaginea Benth., Mertensia paniculata
_ that the animals, like the plants, are comparatively few in species, and mostly of northern forms. It is possible that, somewhat later,
- insects, but I was then so near the end of the spring migration,
even in early spring and in an average rainy year like the past.
dians who live at these loca
pa i ot
14 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS.
T. & G., Antennaria dioica L., Senecio lugens Rich., Kalmia
Dougl., Gilia nudicaulis Gray, Androsace septentrionalis L., Prim- ula Parryi Gray, Gentiana humilis Stev., Phacelia sericea Gray.
In succeeding articles the flora of the Owl Creek range and of the high mountain district between the Big-Horn and Yellowstone basins will be noticed.
ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS.
BY DR. J. G. COOPER.
Wuen collecting at San Diego Bay in the spring of 1862, I much regretted that the severe floods of that noted season so broke up the roads into the mountains, that I could not get up to them with the necessary materials for making a full collection of the animals and plants. I then supposed that the greater moisture and large forests of the mountains would favor the existence of numerous — species as yet uncollected within the Union, if not entirely new. a I was disappointed in not finding more of them near the coast, and 7 attributed their absence to the barrenness of the country, and want ; of trees, essential to many species. I supposed also that some of — the Mexican or Lower Californian species said to be found near — the boundary must exist there. -
My late trip through the mountains, has, however, satisfied me
agglers from Lower California might appear among birds and
in this latitude, that no common visitors are likely to have escaped notice. — As to the non-migratory animals, they have evidently been endered very scarce by the want of water over most of the range,
Those that drink could find water in the fall only at intervals of — ten to twenty miles, where es must fall an easy prey to the ~ 7
The n reptiles, insects an ‘and mollusea, are however less |
TRE os mals, as the former can obtain
ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 15
enough from rain and fogs, while the lower classes frequently remain torpid during unusual droughts.*
The mammals seen were very few. The grizzly bear (or perhaps a different species called the cinnamon bear) is said to occur rarely. The skunks, the most frequently noticed of the small carnivora, did not make their presence known, and I heard ten years ago, that the dry seasons preceding had nearly exterminated them in the low country. The other small carnivora are still more scarce, their usual prey, the Rodentia, having disappeared.
Wild cats are not rare about the highest peaks, and a skin I saw was only a young of the common Lynx rufus, var. maculatus. I heard formerly of long-tailed spotted cats being found in these southern ranges, but if the Felis eyra or Felis onza have ever reached them by crossing the deserts eastward, they have become now exceedingly scarce, through starvation or from being hunted. Cayotés (Canis latrans) are scarce, and I heard nothing of foxes.
Of Rodents, the almost universal Spermophilus Beecheyi was so scarce in the mountains, that I saw only two, both near streams at four thousand feet altitude. They are, however, common near river-beds along the coast, though less so than formerly. I saw a small.spermophile near Julian which may have been S. lateralis, or a new species, obtained by me at Fort Mojave.
_ The largest of our tree squirrels, found on the San Bernardino
range (Sciurus leporinus), is absent, as well as all its arboreal allies. I saw none of the numerous and destructive murine bur- rowers, nor any bats, but a longer residence might furnish these in some spots. Of the Hare family I saw only a few; Lepus Califor- nicus in the foot-hills, and L. Audubonii once about two thousand feet up.
Deer, requiring much water, are very scarce, while the moun- tains are too rough for the antelope, and too much wooded for the mountain sheep, though both of these may occur not far away. -On account of the scarcity of carnivorous animals, certain kinds
* The complete drying bef of the streams | mom this range, at times, is shown by es
absence of fish. than W , miles north of San Felipe at the head of San Luis Rey riv + The finding of Lagomys ceps, the “ Little Chief Baa? by Mr. Gabb, on a moun-
tain in Lower Ca lifornia ten thousand feet high and near the boundary line, is a prob-
lem in zoology not easily W olved, as = animal could not have reached there from the
north under the 8, since it does not come lower down on the
Sierra Nevada in latitude 39° than six thonsand feet (see saree wesc of the Academy Sciences, Philadelphia, 1858).
16 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS.
of small and prolific species become very abundant after one or two rainy years. Hares and rabbits may then be seen by hun- dreds at a time, and the California quail as well as other resident birds show the same rapid increase in such years, when food is abundant. Two very dry years preceded this, and consequently all these animals had become quite scarce.*
BIRDS. a these I give a list, with such notes as seem requisite. [Those marked ł try from January to — 1862.] Turkey buzzard (Cathartes aura), chiefly seen near base of mountains; prairie falcon (F. polyagrws), seen once or twice; sparrow hawk singel te apr verius), “quite ss sharp- shinned hawk (Accipiter fuscus), not rare; bro , very com- mon from the base to the mines, L5G í nes aliada g always prized, bu t I did not find any nests nor shoot a specimen. i seems to be the form sarih e of this region, though the western red-tail (B. baa is also None of B. Swainsonii seen. Squirrel hawk (Ar chibuteo ee krh near a open plan ; marsh hawk (Circus Hudsonius), at alm very me anew or ded prem; t Golden eagle (Aquila Canadensis), seen rarely ; bo Vi Ap seen m: chara on all par ts of the route where any trees exist; burrowing owl (At
FOU
ER Oe ee
Hair ow woodpecker (Picus Harrisii), a common sateen in eps forests high up; California woodpecker (Melanerpes micivorus), very co n, probably up to the highest summits, but not age to the mésa, chiefly in the o
t Lewis’ woodpecker (M. quatus), not uncommon in a higher mountains; red Skana flicker (Colaptes Meefoama), à se megs Apai sical a humming- t re they proba a breed. Ann na eilidean te Ča oe oat suits ob common along tha route. The were perhaps other cate pie I aid not identify th
t Oregon swift (Chet mig g 26th, and may DaM summer in ike: ala, [The rare white-throa
(Panyptila aT reeds in the Santa Anna mountains, fifty miles north, and perhaps in these.] t Poor sby (Antrostomus Hayre steaks = Cajon valley. I both heard and saw
these sei near San Francisco as early 20th. Arkansas and Cassin’s kingbi
{! verticalis and T. T. vociferans), sia mes ed near the foot-hills, or below. Ash- mateg Ayeatehor (Myiarchus Mexicanus), n re up to 4,000 feet altitude; black pewee ceayore TE chiefiy abont = Tooth fp Lith aor ramped other eres miers bat not numerous up to 4,500 feet altitude; anne rush (Turdus nanus), ¢ thickets; robin (7. migratorius), common near the nA forests jac ae aN ee western bluebird (Siatia Mexicana), abund ant througho ut the nica yellow-throat
ae me: Batts
( Geothly
+ Macgillivray’s warbler (G. Mugiorey, not so common, the in drier localities orange-crow: s ta), abundant ; in the lower parts.
t Western warbler Dendreca occidentalis) oat nd 4,500 feet altitude, and probably remains all summer. This is the first time me — seen this
at the "m bia river, and as pnr as Apr Ist, at Petaluma, California, atte ss". Large num- bers of this and the next four Ww th slopes, and though still awa a were Since a little, and doubtless build there. The others were Townsend’s, i the gray, Audubon’s and t the s ummer ie . Towns
1); oods, as it doos at 6,00 ne ); Audabon’s Iy In the highest w +
ude 39°; black-capped war bier (
ar ata ot tae ek a Coast Slope” in ‘thistjournal, a ree a Science, v, Feb., is. i
eo
ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 17
quite common and u mmits; RE apa (Pyranga aM 6 ones dant on higher part gs eee iins, and down. to foot-hills in summer; cli allow pak stn lunifrons), the only kind ina qe: here, except on the high aR aeons 3,500
PS wallow (H. A al common. in the oak groves up to 4, yon Teek; mar aie (Progne aches), not uncomm seen rarely among mistletoe = me hills; ens on’s greenlet ( Vireo Hutton i), not rare on the low mountains; little vireo (V. pusillus), common in willow thickets ne. the lower aer of rivers. ory vireo ( V. solitarius), not rare, and spo a # mo g bird Br nus polyglottus), not seen above the edges of the mésa. [Th ch aka (Oreoscoptes montanus) has been — ee near $ San ee i con billed thrush Apis porhynchus cep common in the lower
t White-th oe pe en (Catherpes eee seen and heard only near Cajon valley,
among immense granite bo widers. heir cry sounds like tes — laughter Bewic es wren pp edna Bewickii), common in the lower country; wren-titmouse sehisescas Lamhe). very ERLA on the i ahixebby EPEE ee ation nuthatch ( pine woods. f oo poe (S. pygmea), also common aio ng pines e up; gr se RE (Lophophanes inorna- tus), not rare parsan ea oak forests; mountain titmouse ( Parus ea 5 very common indeed near the pine forests. It is possible on this may prove a new species, as they looked smaller Aa differently marked, but I did not succeed in et ting ere Other “critical” species may yet be found to repre sect some of the northern bir here named. east titmouse (Psaltriparus minimus), common at 7 half-way an mountains; horned lark (Eremophila cornuta), abundant on vein plains everywhere. I Baw fledged young os sass Pines, May 3.
tina?), or some similar bird, I saw and heard a fe ew times 1 near the ‘summits of the moun ntains; lark finch ( Chondestes grammaca) is common on most open plains up to 3,000 feet altitude; Bells finch smeeep ies Bases is
on most parts up tg 4,000 feet; Heermann’s song sparrow Saige iza Heermanni), ae common; black-headed grosbeak (Guiraca melanocephala), very common in all the woods.
+ Bl G l ite common up to 4,500 feet. [Going north I saw trentyfive n miles north of San Diego, a single he arg goldfinch (Chrysomitris I ch ( i ena
t Cow bird ( Molvthru thrus pecoris) oceu flocks on the east side of summit only, at 4,500 feet Tt yellow headed 1 blackbird a (Xanthocephatus icterocephalus), with the pages nd also o Ua neglecta). everywhere
u open pat goes mea adows; Bullock’s oriole (Icterus B ullockii), common; hoode iole (J. cucullatus), not rare up to 2 00 feet in Fook: neg = wer’s blackbird (Scole-
or
ophagus ae anocephalus), abundant almost n (Corvus carnivorus), in pairs occasionally up to at least 4,500 fost’ sweater eae a fitas). common u up to
t Clarke’s crow (Picicor Columbi ?) urs, as almost alway’ in the Tan pine forests, but at this season is so shy and aiak that I am not certain of huy- en it.
a Stellers jay (Cyanura Stelleri) was not rare in the pine woods. California i (Cyanocitta Californica), ), confined to > the osk woods up to about four thousand altitu
f Band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata), in small flocks above three thousand feet altitude
t Mountain quail ( Oreortyx pictus) in — above three bee five hundred feet, eae were p aed by April 28th. Lafterwards heard what I think was this bird on am Anaheim, Los Angeles Co., a not over one thousand feet elevation where s niall cypress trees S grow. A male shot agrees ex zoey with description
AMER. NATURALIST, vou ti. 32
18 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS.
except m size smaller than caapi This is one hundred and twenty miles south of the most southern locality before kno
California quail (Lophortyx Californi ae fined to tl gion below tl th d five hundred feet.
Snowy heron (Garzetta candidissima), I saw once at a pond on east side, four thou-
)s sand ni oe — feet. Kildeer ( Zgialitis vociferus), common about every gr velly `
stream o: + Stilt Aans nigricollis), prae migrating April 30th, when I saw a flock of a Spang at the eats locality as |
t So. al along wooded stream high in ape ten. -Coot (iulian seny oae rare on pools s high up in the moun- tains. Mallard (Anas boschas), in on the ponds and head waters of San
M:
Se river at four thousand fiye art ou altitude, where they no doubt remain
all s ak ye eighty-four PEED observed, only t are new to the onni and all these are species of m ore northern range. Three or four belong rather to the mésas than am mountains, w with others not menpioned. During my former six months’ REEDS I found twenty other species of land birds alone, within ten miles of the oast; some showers only winter visitors there. I saw also twenty- six other waders,
fty-two swimmers.
REPTILES — ne noticed ae above the mer paraan on account of the early season,
though it was war g ap on our return route. Many little Hyl illa) h ma nd I heard what I supposed to
be salamanders piping with them at aight.
FISHES. — None are known t ge
Mo.Liusca,— At ae canon of San Diego river is a rich locality ee terrestrial species, as I found there pot meeting point of the five et ore belonging to the mésa and the mountains ociated in sont etre number t diffi eg to obtain living, as
they had TERAN aaa into deep fissures of oe saa My rapid journey was ot paga sei esi many species, but they ave been collected by Mr. H. Hemphill, s, also by Mr. Hemphill, Mr. G. = Dunn and myself neir San Diego (in
coe ag so peg can pae the following lists, comparing the species of the two regions. —
e saw no trace of the Lower Californian Bulimuli, etc.
— N SPECIES. MOUNTAIN SPECIES. 1. Lysinoe Carpente 2. Lysinoe Traskii. 3. Arionta ? Toinn 4. Arionta tudiculat:
Maerocyclis Voyana. 6. M. Vancouverensis 7H. Newberryana. i orea. :
5. 7. “Helix” Newberryana (Limax cam-| 8. Hy: es pestris, I found at San Juan R., 50| 9. C rsina miles northward, and it very proba- | 10. Pecuionyalin 3 Mazatlanica. Diego Bay). | 11. Vallonia minut
: bly occurs nearer to San oa peat ma 13. Succinea Gioii diais. 12. , Succinea rus 15. Lymnophysa me l4. Limnophysa prema 17. Physa diaphan ; oe Physa Gabbii. 19. Pisidium i aaa -virgata. (Not on | > 2. Young, of 2-3 wh, hirsu 4, Up to 1,000 ft. elevat
5. For and others, see Proc. distinct from rn species. —
oak cad. v,i June, 1871. jes.
7. This inh ae in the | foothills not Only seen in the Cano ge ede or Mes. ft. elevation, and at the upper
18. — ae it Desert with Helisoma am-
th EA
6. T found this dead only ind t think it may be
~
ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT AND THE SEXUAL CONDITION IN PLANTS.
BY JOHN STOCKTON-HOUGH, M.D. — 00an
InprAn Corn (Zea Mays) is sexually monecious, that is, the male and female flowers are normally on different parts of the same plant. Occasionally, however, the female flowers appear among the male flowers, on the same raceme, and more rarely, the male flowers appear on the spike (ear) among the female flowers, and still more rarely, they are hermaphroditic.
Other observers reverse the order of rarity of these anomalies and say that ‘male flowers sometimes appear amongst the female flowers, and Mr. J. Scott has lately observed the rarer case of female flowers on a true male panicle, and likewise hermaphrodite flowers.” *
The writer collected and examined nearly a hundred specimens of these anomalies (female flowers among the males), during the last autumn (1872) with a view of determining the relationship between the proportion or excess of either sexual element and the condition of development of the plants bearing such anomalous flowers.
stalks bearing female flowers among the males were almost without exception “ suckers,” that is, branches coming off from the main stalks at the nodes among the adventitious roots just below the surface of the ground. The junction of one of these “ suck- ers” with the-stalk on which it is a parasite, so to speak, is greatly constricted, and the point of attachment is scarcely more than an eighth of an inch across. There are few, if any, serviceable ad- ventitious roots to these suckers, so the stalk derives its nourish- ment wholly from the trunk to which it is joined, and as a conse- uence such stalks are short, slim and pale in color, having abridged internodes, or in other words, they are undeveloped. A wet season, injury to the main stalk, shady locations and the borders of fields, seem to favor their production.
_ * Darwin, Variations in Animals and Plants under Domestication, out of Trans. of Botan. Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. viii, p. 60 (19)
20 ORIGIN OF SEX.
From what has been brought forward, it would appear as if ' these sexual anomalies were the result of deficient nutrition, from ` which resulted defective development and restrained evolution of the sexual organs.
There were many stalks to be found, bearing male flowers (“ tas- sels”) alone in the normal position (terminal), apparently perfect males in size and development, but no stalks are to be found bearing a complete spike (ear) of perfect female flowers alone, even when terminal. Such spikes (ears) are always defective, often being but partially filled with grains, even when no male. flowers are present.
The spike (ear) is only an undeveloped branch, sometimes having two or three internodes it is true, but it is generally sessile.
When the ear is in the normal position, no matter how much the female flowers may prevail or how defective they are, the male flower always normally appears in the terminal part of the main stem or stalk. Not so with the wholly male plant, which has a tassel in the normal position (terminal) without a sign of a place ` for a female flower.
When the ear (female spike) abnormally bears male flowers, they are usually terminal on the cob, though sometimes they may be on any other part of the ear, even a single male flower among the closely crowded grains (females). Mr. Scott, as al- ready mentioned, speaks of having found. even hermaphrodite flowers, which would naturally appear to be much more rare among dicecious plants than among the moneecious, for the latter _ condition would appear to stand between the aoe and the hermaphroditic. i
Great numbers of corn plants bear male ARRA only, while . none are female alone, and wherever they approach the latter con- — dition, the spike (ear) of female flowers is terminal. ‘These exclu- a sively male plants are usually as large as if not indeed larger than the normal kind (monecious) and are certainly more rank and _ vigorous in their growth than those plants which bear principally female flowers on the terminal part of the plant, which latter, as I have already said,are much shorter, more: slender, and pale in color.
The following table will indicate these differences. Fifty spec-
ORIGIN OF SEX. 21
imens of plants of Indian corn, having an abnormal sexual arrangement of the flowers, had the following proportions :—
Stalks having a few D o pron aa, amne Bonera ia 7- SE teo bavi Rent wor a er and siere aan male panic] pat ag cbt (dicecious). . (moneecious). Goroit rate tiai y dicecious). maphroditism), Average : * : height. 4 } 124 in. 118 inches. 88 inches. 46 inches. Terminal | ar: “ u internodes, } 1H in. 6-10 46 & 5-25
From this showing it appears that in proportion to the partici- pation or predominance of the female element, just in that propor- tion does the plant decline in size and development, and we are forced to conclude, as we have shown in several other articles,* that females are undeveloped males, and this is true in plants as well as among animals. :
In some cases where the female flowers were on the male pani- cle, instead of forming a single large ear, as was usually the’case, each branch of the panicle bore grains separately, which must have resembled what Bonafous mentions as a variety called Cy- mosa, which has its ears so crowded together that it is often called mais à bouquet. Some of the specimens examined by me had the
appearance as if the col) had been separated into several segments, triangular in shape, bearing corn only on one side (the outer) of the triangle.
Returning to those stalks bearing male flowers alone and which, I have said, are tallest, most rank, and best developed,—I would suggest that the absence of female flowers was due to retarded fe-
* Longevity and other biostatic peculiarities of the J N. Y. Medical Record, May 15, 1873. pp. 241, 2, 3,4. The Relative ater phe acs Sexes, etc. N. Y. Medical Record, June 16 and July 15, 1873. pp.9. The Laws of Transmission of Resemblance from Parents to their Children. N.Y. Medical Record, Aug. 15, Sept. 15, Oct. 15, and Nov. 15,1873. pp.16. Statistics Relating to Births, Marriages and Deaths, and Movement of Population in Philadelphia, for the eleven years ending 1871. Penn.
t Monthly, Sept., 1873. pp. 24. Papers of the Social Sci. Assoc. of Philadelphia, 1873. iture Feb. 15.
ular, Phil. Med. Times, 1873. A new Theory as to the Cause of Enlargement of the Prostate Gland, etc. The Proximate Cause we ikna
Dissertation appas e Trustees and Faculty of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, March 13, 1868, for i T of Doctor re Medicine], entitled; Prepotency, —* Elective poe Sagi on- ~Siiegiatadity, or the differentiation of the Elements of Reproduction in the Human Species; the cause of Relative Steril- ity; By John necting ar A. M., M. Chem., ie New Jersey; The Cause of Rota- tion and a nearly equal number of pein in Births,
22 ORIGIN OF SEX.
cundation of the ovules from which such stalks were produced. This point might be practically tested by planting a single stalk in a field far removed from any other corn. The tassel should be cut off as often as required to prevent the male flowers from form- ing, then the pollen from another plant should be applied to the female flower at the latest moment when fecundation is possible. By this method we should expect to get the largest possible pro-
portion of exclusively male-generating grains. To get the largest possible proportion of female-producing grains, the female flower should be fecundated at the earliest possible moment—earlier than nature does it. The grains produced under these circumstances would, when planted, give the largest and the smallest proportion of exclusively male or female plants.
It would be well to determine whether the grains near the tip, in the middle, or near the base of the ear, gave the largest pro- portion of exclusively male-producing grains. The following will illustrate how the facts might be tabulated :—
Number Whole Whole Average Oraina. Of stalks Stalks Stalks number number number of BD eki: one ear, twoears, of ears,
of stalks. ears to each stalk.
PV ie ae x P v mae Se Ao
From middle ¥ T WN. TW Y+T+W hte
From base z N Oo N+20 - Z4.N40 aero
Metzger* has observed that the effect of climate on Indian corn, as cultivated in Germany, causes “the lower seeds in the ear to keep to their proper form, but the upper seeds become slightly changed.” te Among species of Carex, it is a common thing for the spike to consist of male flowers at the top, and female flowers at the base ; though the converse is much more common.”+ Dickson, Mohl, Schleiden, Braun, Cranmer and others have observed cones of different species of pines, usually female, having male flowers in the lower part of the cone.
M. Charles Girou de Bu
zareignues{ has made many observa- Sr nei
. Annales des Sciences Naturelies, L xvi. p. 140, extracted from hia Da la Céndration. 8vo, Paris, 1828. + WT. oa. to
yr pote
+ eroos bed
1 gy; Ray Soc... I ondon, 1869. 8v0, pp- 191 (Het- : .
Sisiyan 1817, also, Moquin-Tandon; Éléments de Teratologie Végétal, 1841, p. 126,
ORIGIN OF SEX. 23
tions on the proportion of male and female plants produced from seeds taken from different parts of the hemp plant. He found that the seed taken from the lower, more mature, and more highly developed parts of the plant gave a much larger proportion of male-producing seed, than seed taken from the upper, more succu- lent, less mature, less highly developed parts, as the following figures will indicate. Of 125 hemp plants the proportion of males to females was—
Males Females 692 1000
1° In the subjects taken from the weak oh eam re In those which came from strong pla 907 1000
2° In the subjects ae from the seeds Sane by the inferior half of the stem of weak plan ants, oseceerebeee 1250 = 1000 ate in oni ‘which wh wa cs p superior half.....« 444 1000
3° In seed gue by the Pas gate half of f the stem f ads To E 1 1000 d in those which came from the s mre Ralf o ssss 827 1000
The same observer in subsequent experiments* declares that seeds from nearest the summit of the stem gave proportionally more females than those from the middle and base. The lower branches gave a larger proportion of males than the upper. I might repeat many similar experiments with the same result.
Concerning the size of the seeds, he says that the largest and smallest gave a predominating proportion of males, while those of the mean size gave more especially females.
The carefully made observations of Mr. Thomas Meehan of Germantown, Philadelphia Co., Penn., are singularly in harmony with those of Mr. Girou and others, though, I alia made en- tirely independently of a knowledge of the latte
Mr. Meehan has observed that in several has of the order Cupulifere, and he believes in all of them, “we find the female _ flowers only on the strongest young growths, and only at or near the apex of the first great wave of spring growth, as if it were the culmination of a great vegetative effort which produced them, instead of a decline as in the male.”
*Girou, Suite des Expériences sur la Génération des Plantes, | Annales des Sci- ences Naturelles, t. xxiv, pp. 138-148. tOn the igs of the phate Proc. Amer. Assoc. Ady. Sci., 1869, pp. 256-60. See
also, ibid., , pp. 276-280; ibid., 1868, p. 317. Proc. Acad. Nat. ares 1868, 9, 70. Also Gardener's Monthly (edited by Mi: een), 1E, p- 333, et ~ Also Dr. S. W.
Butler’ ti Medical and Surin Seti ne, Phila., "Oct. sy si p- 330, et al. loc. Op. cit.; also, Mr. Meehan in Old and New, Feb., 1872, p. 173 et seq.
24 ORIGIN OF SEX.
In the case of Norway spruces it is “only in the fourth or fifth year, when vitality in the spur is nearly exhausted, do male flowers abundantly appear.”
Mr. David Moore, in his morphology of Nepenthes,* says that “vigor and healthiness increase the female line of vital force in vegetables, while weakness is more conducive to the male devel- opment.” When growth has ceased, maturity and complete de- velopment are accomplished, and the business of reproduction exclusively occupies the plant.
From all this it appears then, that while the plant is mostly oc- cupied in vigorous growth, while it is yet succulent, immature, or / is, in other words, undeveloped, does it bear the largest proportion — or principally female flowers. As growth is antagonistic to de- velopment, and it is only after perfect development is reached that the reproductive function is most active, we are forced to con- clude that the production of male flowers or fruit is a higher effort i of the plant than the production of females. $
I have ventured to enunciate it as a law} deduced from a thor- ough study of the subject, that the greater the fecundity, in sin- gle births, the larger the proportion of male children, and vice — versa. I have also said that the begetting of males is a higher — role in the reproductive act of the mother than the hegetting of | females ; while the begetting of females on the part of the father — is a higher reproductive role than the begetting of males.{ In this — article it has been shown that the greater the “vigor” (rapidity of growth and excessive vital and vegetative action) the larger the proportion of females produced. Now, it is so well known and so universally recognized and pointed out by physiologists, that _ this same vigor is directly antagonistic to reproduction, that it is scarcely necessary for me to mention it. Hence females are be- gotten when the system is more occupied by the process of growth, reparation or disease, than when males are begotten.
Dr. Henry Hartshorne§ has maintained Mr. Meehan’s view of the relation of vigor to sex. To the facts stated I fully agree,
* Trans. of the Royal Irish Acad., Vol. xxiv, p. 629, 1870. t The Relative Viability of the Sexes, etc. N. Y. Medical Record, June 16, and July 15, 1873, p. 301; and Statistics of Philadelphia, Proc. Socjal Sci. Assoc., 1873, p. 18. . ł See farther, in the author’s thesis, already alluded to, in foot-note; also his paper — on Laws of Transmission, ete., ete, e Relation between Vi:
§On the
a ony
Proc. Amer. Assoc. Ady. Sci., 1872, PP
ORIGIN OF SEX. i 25
but the deductions which they have both arrived at, viz.: that the begetting of female offspring is a higher role on the part of the mother than the es of males, — that is, requires a more as a consequence, females are more highly Kai than Me are diametrically opposed to my own conclusions, as may be seen in this and in the other papers referred to.
The use of the word “vigor” is scarcely scientific ; it has only a practical, conventional meaning, and should be studiously avoided by scientific biologists, as it is almost useless by way of compar- ison. Development is the proper physiological expression, and indicates the degree of evolution or maturity of the various organs of the animal or plant, and we can readily compare the different stages and degrees of development exhibited in each organ. Mr. Meehan studiously avoids the use of this last named word, and would, I am persuaded, alter his deductions if he should weigh its full meaning, and apply it in his comparisons. He cannot, how- ever, be too highly praised for his excellent series of observations already alluded to.
ith a view of showing the fallacy of the use of this word vigor, I may state that Dr. Gouverneur Emerson of Philadelphia, several years ago, discovered that ‘‘the extensive prevalence of every severe zymotic epidemic, or endemic disease ; every occurrence, in fact, which exerts, either directly or indirectly, a decided, depress- ing effect upon a community, will be indicated in the record of births by a conspicuous reduction in the proportion of males.” * He bases this opinion upon the careful study of the statistics of births in Philadelphia during the prevalence of cholera in the year 1833; also for Paris 1832. In the first named city, the per- centage of excess of male births for the decade from 1830 to 1840 was 6°29, while “the diminution of male conceptions, during the cholera, was at the rate of 17 per cent.” The number of concep- tions during the months in which cholera prevailed was 1826 males and 1851 females, or 98-64 males to 100 females. In Paris, in 1832, the year cholera prevailed there, the excess of male concep- tions was reduced from the usual average of 6 per cent. to 384 per cent. From this we see that a ‘‘lessened vigor,” so to speak, is ac- companied by an increase in the proportion of female births; so
*C. perati let ining the Proportions of the Sexes at Birth. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, July, 1848, pp. 78-85.
26 ORIGIN OF SEX.
a lessened or increased vigor may determine this increased ten- dency toward the production of females ; in fact, anything which operates upon the animal economy by distracting it from the busi- ness of reproduction, such as rapid and vigorous growth, develop- mental processes, mental anxiety, or incipient disease, will cause a lessened fecundity and an increase in the proportion of female offspring. | Mrs. Mary Treat* of Vineland, N. J., has, by repeated experi- » ments on butterflies, found that by overfeeding a certain number, a large proportion of female eggs was produced, and that by underfeeding, or partly starving them, the poporo of male eggs was increased. : ~ The writer has shown in his paper on “The Nationality of — Parents as Affecting the Fecundity and the Proportion of Sexes — in Births” + that foreign mothers (who are unquestionably more — “vigorous” than native mothers) have a much larger proportion of boys among their children. Mr. H. H. Howorth, in his paper entitled *Strictures on Dare a winism,”{ says that he “cannot but conclude that sterility is — induced by vigorous health and by a plentiful supply of the neces- saries of life, while fertility is induced by want and debility, and that this law acts directly against Mr. Darwin’s theory, in that it is constantly recruiting the weak and the decrepit at the expense . of the hearty and vigorous, and is constantly working against the 4 favorite scheme of Mr. Darwin, that in the struggle for existence the weak are always being eliminated by the strong.” 3 It will be seen by the above that the views of Mr. Darwin and — _ Mr. Howorth are both extreme; the former believing that the _ greatest fecundity and best products belong to the most vigorous, — while the latter believes that the most feeble are most prolific, and have the most vigorous offspring. The writer is of the opinion, from a careful study of the wubjett that a medium condition between these two extremes is most favorable to fecundity and the production of healthy, vigorous offspring, namely, developmental maturity of the parents, and . moderate supply of food in connection with a life most in accord- ance with nature. o‘ * AMERICAN a 1873, Laws Controlling the, Sexes in Butterflies. —
oS
Philadelphia eee ee Anthropological Institute. ‘London, April, 1872, pp. 21-40. P- or t 1, Fertility and Sterility,
ORIGIN OF SEX. 27
We have seen, then, that excessive ‘‘ vigor” increases the pro- portion of females ; lessened ‘‘ vigor” decreases the proportion of males (apparently increases the proportion of females) ; and that greater ‘‘ vigor” increases the proportion of males :— from all of which we conclude that there is no constant ‘relationship between ‘vigor’ and sex.”
In my paper on the “ Relative Viability of the Sexes, etc.,” in which I have shown that females have a higher viability (greater longevity) than males, I ventured to ascribe this greater viability to the fact of female fetuses sapping the vitality of the mother more than males. However this be, there can be no doubt of the facts stated, for Prof. Martegoute* in his observations on the breeding of the Dishley Mauchamp merino sheep, says,—‘‘ Our monthly weighings show that the ewes that have produced female lambs are on an ayerage of weight superior to those that produced the males; and they evidently lose more in weight than these last, during the suckling period; while the ewes that pro- duce males, weigh less, and do not lose in nursing so much as the others.”7 ‘That is, mothers are in better condition when they conceive females, and are in better condition when they wean males than females.” Dr. Congar{ has observed the same thing concerning women. Dr. Spruce,§ a South American traveller, noticed that a certain palm (Geonoma) bore fruit (female flowers) one year, and male flowers the next, alternating from male to female from year to year. This same fact is seen in some ani- mals, that bear females for several generations, then males; in fact the process of ‘alternation of generations” is dependent upon this principle, of which I shall have more to say in another paper. ||
I have stated that some stalks bore only male flowers, and sug- gested that this fact was the result of retarded fecundation of the ovule from which the stalk was produced, and I may now point out how nature allows these peculiarities to be produced.
It has been observed, says Lindley, that the quantity and kind of light to which the plant is subjected determine the sex of the
* Journal d'Agriculture Pratique, ete t Goodale, Breeding, etc. of Domestic Animals. Boston, 1861, pp. 91, 92. İH. M. Congar, M. D., Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, August, 1867. § Criticism on Dr. Spruce’s article, by Dr. Wendland, in Botan. Zeitung, 1869. The Cause of Rotation and ep E Number of Sexes in Births. ry of Horticulture, N.
+
28 ORIGIN OF SEX.
future products of the seeds produced under these circumstances. ~ General Pleasonton* of this city has lately determined that both q animals and plants thrive better under a violet colored light, — which is in harmony with the experiments of Dr. Daubeny.f ~ Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight { observed that the relative quantity — of light and heat determined the sex of the flowers produced by 4 certain plants. Lindley says, “It will be found that no pollen is scattered in damp, cold weather, but in a sunny, warm, dry morn- ing the atmosphere surrounding such plants, is, in the impregna- ting season, filled with grains of pollen discharged by the anthers. In wet springs the crops of fruit fail, because the anthers are not sufficiently dried to shrivel and discharge their contents, which remain locked up in the anther cell till the power of impregnation " is lost.” Gaertner § has pointed out in his “ Notice sur des Expériences concernant la Fécondation de quelques Végétaux,” the decided i fluence of the state of the atmosphere on the process of fecun tion. He insists on the maturity of the pollen as essential to the process. During a warm time the stamens of the rue accomplish their movements in two or three days, whilst they are, by a cold air and an advanced season, scarcely terminated in eight days. Fecundation requires also a greater quantity of pollen in the la case than in the other. || F This being the case, we can readily understand that a few Y days may prevent the pollen from being disseminated, while the ovules continue developing, and fecundation is retarded from this cause, and it is for this reason that the production of a larger proportion of exclusively male-producing-grains i is due. Darwin§ says that “walnut trees, which are properly mo cious, sometimes entirely fail to produce male flowers ;” and “th female silver maple will not unfrequently put forth branches — male flowers.” — : Some cultivator has recorded ** a series of experiments
“ftir, Lines 1 sche aia na bii. Phil. Trans., 1836, p Mr. Knight’s Physiological Papers, pp: wan out of the
PE E E tliche Abhandlungen, Tubingen, 1826, t Koelrenter. Vorlanoties Nachricht von Einingen das cae pon banun treffenden Versuchen, pp. 10, 19, from Dondi sima Chronicle, 1847, pp. 541-558. _ 3 paar oann e pani cation ** American A; t » Orange Judd, M. A. Editor.
ORIGIN OF SEX. 29
Indian corn, with a view of obtaining the largest proportion of stalks bearing two ears. The following was the method employed ; all the stalks bearing but one ear had the “ tassel” (male flower) cut off before it was full blown, so that all stalks bearing two ears would be surely fecundated by the male flowers of the same or other stalks also bearing two ears, thus securing duplicity on both the male and female sides. In this way, we are told that the pro- portion of stalks bearing two or more ears, was increased to a considerable extent, by the planting of grains procured by this process.*
A single ovule may be fecundated by the pollen of at least two different varieties, as may be seen from Mr. Arnold’s experiments given below t.
From what we have shown, it would appear that the grains near the base of the ear are less variable and more mature than those near the tip, and are consequently more desirable for seed, as they would be likely to give plants more vigorous and prolific.
I may state here that it is the habit of good farmers to select the largest and fairest ears, containing the largest, fullest, and hardest grains, for seed; and that a popular notion prevails that ears having a few remaining glumes of abnormally placed male flowers at the tip of the cob are called “female ears” and are supposed to be more prolific, at least are thought to be more de- sirable for “seed”? ; whether there be any foundation for this belief I am ste informed, but am inclined to look upon it as a “vulgar error.”
*From James Logan’s experiments it would appear as if it were the rule, under or- dinary circumstances, for the female flowers of plants = the same hill to be igor: principally by the pollen from male flowers in the sam —— Experimenta et Me
metemata de Plantarum palma, auctore Jacobo L an, Leyden, 1739. Nrenchigal into English by J. F., iginal rigs text, opposite page. London,
p. 9. t Mr. Arnold of Paris, Canada, has shown that if the female flowers of an Indian
t related, pollen se a yellow variety of corn, eae oe to that taken from a white variety; the result was an ear of corn each hich was yellow below and white above. ‘The conclusion ‘presented i is, a only that there T Seaman influence on the seed pollen, but the more impor- tant fact that one ovule can bè affected ‘by the efis - hd distinct parents, and thir, r some time had elapsed between the first and second impregnation. [From ~ aa paper on The Laws of Transmission of Resemblance from Parents to Jhildren. New York Medical Record, 15th of Aug., Sept., Oct., and Nov., 1873, = ok of Scribner’s Monthly, Sept., 1873.]
30 ORIGIN OF SEX.
Columella* and Celsus}, in ancient times laid gront stress upon the selection of seed-corn ; and Virgil} says —
“Tve seen the largest seeds, tho’ view’d with care, Degenerate unless th’ industrious hand
Did yearly cull the largest.” §
To recapitulate ara e conclusions arrived at in this paper 4 f are :— g
1. That in plants, and animals as well, that are actively occu- pied in vegetative, physiological, pathological or other efforts which are antagonistic or complementary to the office of repro- — duction, the proportion of females borne during such times is greater than where the plant or animal has reached full develop- mental maturity || and growth, is in good health, and is occupied ~ principally in the process of reproduction. In this latter condi- | tion offspring of a higher developmental condition are produced, — and the proportion of males is increased.
2. Females are in better condition (that is, they are fatter, more active in growth), more troubled by disease,§ or other pro- cess antagonistic to reproduction where they conceive with fe- males than with males; and they are made poorer, become more exhausted, and less healthy, by the production of female offspring than by male products.
4. It is just possible that the ovules from which females derived may have a higher initial vitality (vigor) though the be less highly developed than those from which males are derived, yet no egg can properly be said to be predestined to pa male female.
5. That female plants like female animals are less highly devel oped than males, and are the result of an inferior developmental reproductive effort on the part of the female dea
"De Re Rustica, — .
Darwin;
ARE NS EDE ONE E E R T
p tication, vol. ii, p. 303.
_ §Darwin, yin, op. eit., voli, p. 31 || See farther ahs harbors paper on The a Aspects of oe el « tho Relative: Pistality or Gat ng of Different Pregnancies.—New Y
Offspri Record, January 15 and February 15, 1874. T Dr. Gouverneur Emerson was the first to ‘point out the effect of a prenie a epi- demic (cholera) in reducing the proportion of male births. See his proof in hi oe Sis American Journa? of Medien Sctencee, duir, 200, Pp. 78-85.
RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY.
BY REV. E. L. GREENE.
I.
Srruatep in the midst of a wide waste of treeless and even shrubless plains, which are at an elevation of a mile and more above the level of the sea, the city of Cheyenne would scarcely be thought a central point from which one might make many interest- ing little botanical excursions. The strong northwest winds, which prevail here almost incessantly, by day and by night during all the winter months, seem to sweep all the snows into the valley of the La Poudre, in northern Colorado, and leave the plains of Wyoming quite bare ;. so that one sees here only the short dry curly turf of buffalo and grama grasses, here and there inter- spersed with the spiny balls of Echinocactus Simpsonii. More than once during the winter of 1871-2, on the calmer, better days that are incident to even a Wyoming winter, did the writer of these notes stroll forth upon those plains, to ask of the sere grasses and withered cacti, what else could possibly grow among them in the summer.
Our first spring visit to this region was made on the twentieth of May. The grasses were beginning to show green, the little spherical Echinocacti were crowned each with its chaplet of rose- purple flowers, and the low matted Phlox Douglasii was blooming almost everywhere. A few rods from the depot of the U. P. Rail- / way we stood upon the ridge of bluffs that overlook the turbid stream called Crow Creek, and its now beautiful little valley. The pebble beds that lie along the shore of this almost alpine river are quite gorgeous with purple and yellow. The yellow we recognize as the handsome bloom of Thermopsis fabacea, a common plant of this region, bearing heavy racemes of lupine-like flowers, but the purple is apparently something more interesting. It is a low growing plant, so small that although we are but a few rods from where it is, and we are looking almost straight down upon a large, dense patch of it, we cannot determine it. The color is much like that of several of our beautiful Coloradian Astragali,
(81) `
_ about noonday, and we are but ten miles from Cheyenne. There
- of w — on foot; for these bluffs and table-lands are no’
our eyes tell us. Is it possible that all this is Nuttall’s Oxytropis
— little half-starved stranger where we found it then; but here it is
-and has collected fruit as well as flowers. All our Rocky Moun- i
a great variety of flowers at this high altitude. We must wait
_ glory.
the high lands of Wyoming. We pass the boundary line between
32 RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY.
but it is not their habit to grow so thickly as to color the whole face of several acres, for taking a glance up and down the stream we behold the gravel beds everywhere purple with the same abundance of bloom. After waiting just a moment in order to en- joy the pure delight of a happy anticipation, we hasten down the steep bluff side, and find ourselves scarcely able to believe what
multiceps, one of the most rare and charming of all the plants that — are peculiar to the Rocky Mountains? A plant hitherto rarely
met with at all, and only on a few alpine summits in Colorado — and Montana. The year before, we had taken a few depauperate specimens, in seed only, on one of the Colorado Mountains, and had prized even those poor ones very highly. It grew like a poor —
luxuriant and plentiful, and this Wyoming region is doubtless its _ proper home. Passing up to the bluffs of the other side, a half — mile or so away, we find two or three other very interesting little
leguininous plants, Astragalus sericoleucus, a silky-white, spreading
vetchling with purple flowers, and also the more rare Astragalus — cespitosus, the latter scarcely yet in full flower; and finally an- other, with silky-white foliage, and most splendid racemes of purple. Of this plant we found but one root, out of which we made half a dozen herbarium specimens, but it proves to be N ut- tall’s O. Lagopus. It was thought to be a species yet undescribed ; _
a r ee ee ae
Dr. C. C. Pàrry has this season found the same farther northward, tain species of this genus are beautiful, and this rare one is among the finest. i
But the middle of May is rather too early in the season to find —
about another four weeks, if we are to see these plains in all their :
ti i noy me 20th of June, and we are ascending the grade of 7 the Denver Pacitic Railway from the lower plains of Colorado, t
Blas
the two territories, just as the highest point is reached. It is noW i
is plenty of time for a botanist to reach the city before night, and "r beg of our conductor the privilege of making the remainder
RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 33
gorgeous with flowers of many colors, and we are impatient to see what they are. The whistle sounds, and the train slackens speed, until the leap may be made with safety, and we alight. The train moves on and soon passes from our sight, and we are alone but for the distant companionship of a beautiful herd of antelope which graze upon a near hill-side, a jack-rabbit, and a colony of prairie dogs. But we were landed just on the south side of a line of snow fence, where the snows drifted deep last winter, and so moistened the ground that the flowers and grasses of June are here to be found in greatest luxuriance. Let us see what we have. Very conspicuous are some yellow heads of a composite, borne upon tall and slender scapes, and waving with the grasses in the wind. At the base of each stem is a rosette of narrow, somewhat silky leaves, and the plant is Actinella scaposa Nutt.
In the winter season, on the hill-tops near Cheyenne, we had noticed some close tufts of mossy-green, sharp-pointed leaves, and here we find the very plant in bloom. It has sent up numerous branching stems, two inches or more in height, bearing rather large, sandwort-like flowers. It proves to be Arenaria Hookeri Nutt., a rare species as well asa handsome one. The truly elegant little As- tragalus ceespitosus, which a month ago was barely beginning to show bloom, is not yet gone by, and here we gather lovely speci- mens of it with the rest, and then pass on over and between various hills and bluffs, and out upon the clear green nepense of plains,
toward the metropolis of Wyoming.
Now we are in the midst of a dense patch of wild peas, of a low growth, hairy leaves, and very large purple flowers ; a form of Lathyrus polymorphus Nutt.; and a plant scarcely inferior in beauty to the best of the cultivated species of this genus.
Yonder is a slight depression in the surface of the plain, where there was more moisture in early spring. The whole spot of ground is colored dark dull red, not with flowers, but with the large showy fruits of Rumex venosus Pursh. Two species of Pentstemon are especially attractive among the flowers of this region; P. cris- tatus Nutt., with very large pale purple flowers, in a short rather one-sided raceme, and P. albidus, with smaller and almost white co- rollas, arranged in alongraceme. The latter species is abundant, almost whitening long lines of ridges. A very fine perennial lupine, whose specific name I cannot venture to give, with blue and black flowers borne in large dense spikes, is very noticeable on the stony
AMERICAN NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 3
34 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.
hill-sides ; and again in the valleys, or gentle depressions between the rolling hills, are the rich purple tufts of Astragalus bisulcatus
ray. This is a very handsome perennial, and would be desira- ble enough for cultivation, but for its disgustingly strong odor of bean-vines.
Besides these more noticeable things, our ten miles walk added to our herbal several very interesting rarities, which would have been overlooked by one who had sought only the showy and beau-
tiful things of this interesting ground. A remarkable profusion of —
very handsome flowers, of a few species only, is what especially characterizes the flora of this region at this season of the year. Passing through it by rail, one sees as much of the purple and red and white and yellow of the plants mentioned, as of the common verdure of the prairie grasses.
THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND THE METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.*
BY PROFESSOR ALLMAN,
——$ SO Conception of Biology and Function of the Scientific Method.— Under the head of Biology are included all those departments of
scientific research which have as their object the investigation of the living beings—the plants and the animals—which tenant the surface of our earth, or have tenanted it in past time.
It admits of being divided under two grand heads: Morphology; r which treats of Form; and Physiology, which treats of Function; and besides these there are certain departments of biological study to which both Morphology and Physiology contribute, such as. Classification, Distribution, and that department of research which
is concerned with the origin and causes of living and extinct
forms.
By the aid of observation and experiment we obtain the email | which are to be combined and developed into a science of living —
beings, and it is the function of the scientific method to indicate the mode in which the combinations are to be effected, and the path 2 EEEE
Pinson from the opening address before Section Be ren di the Bri for the Advancement of Science, delivered Sept. 18
TING Eee pg eee fe eid Aen eh ee PNN
ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 35
which the development must pursue. Without it the results gained woula be but a confused assemblage of isolated facts and discon- nected phenomena; but, aided by a philosophic method, the ob- served facts become scientific propositions ; what was apparently insignificant becomes full of meaning, and we get glimpses of the consummate laws which govern the whole.
Classification an Expression of Affinities.— Hitherto we have been considering the individual organism without any direct refer- ence to others. But the requirements of the biological method can be satisfied only by a comparison of the various organisms one with the other. Now the grounds of such comparison may be va- rious, but what we are at present concerned with will be found in anatomical structure and in developmental changes; and in each of these directions facts of the highest order and of great signifi- cance become apparent.
By a carefully regulated comparison of one organism with an- other, we discover the resemblances as well as the differences be- tween them. If these resemblances be strong, and occur in impor- tant points of structure or development, we assert that there is an affinity between the compared organisms, and we assume that the closeness of the aflinity varies directly with the nlopenoss of the resemblance.
It is on the determination of these affinities that all philosophic classification of animals and plants must be. based. A philo- sophical classification of organized beings aims at being a succinct statement of the affinities between the objects so classified, these affinities being at the same time so set forth as to have their vari- ous degrees of closeness and remoteness indicated in the classifi- cation.
Affinities have long been recognized as the grounds of a natural biological classification, but it is only quite lately that a new sig- nificance has been given to them by the assumption that they may indicate something more than simple agreement with a common plan— that they may be derived by inheritance from a common ancestral form, and that they therefore afford evidence of a true blood relationship between the organisms presenting them.
The recognition of this relationship is the basis of what is known as the Descent Theory. No one doubts that the resem- blances we notice among the members of such small groups as those we name species are derived by inheritance from a common
36 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.
ancestor, and the Descent Theory is simply the extension to the larger groups of this same idea of relationship.
If this be a true principle, then biological classification becomes an exposition of family relationship—a genealogical tree in which the stem and branches indicate various degrees of relationship and direct and collateral lines of descent. It is this conception which takes classification out of the domain of the purely morphological.
Affinity determined by the study of Anatomy and Development.— From what has just been said it follows that it is mainly by a com- parison of organisms in their anatomical and developmental char- acters that their affinities are discoverable. The structure of an organism will in by far the greater number of cases be sufficient to indicate its true affinity, but it sometimes happens that certain members of a group depart in their structure so widely from the characters of the type to which they belong, that without some other evidence of their affinities no one would think of assigning them to it. This evidence is afforded by development.
A Philosophical Classification cannot form a single Reetilineal Series. —A comparison of animals with one another having thus resulted in establishing their affinities, we may arrange them into groups, some more nearly, others’ more remotely related to one another. The various degrees and directions of affinity will be expressed in every philosophical arrangement, and as these affini- ties extend in various directions, it becomes at once apparent that no arrangement of the animal or vegetable kingdom, in a straight line ascending like the steps of a ladder from lower to higher forms, can give a true idea of the relations of living beings to one another. These relations, on the contrary, can be expressed only by a ramified and complex figure which we have already compared to that of a genealogical tree.
Distribution and Evolution.— Another very important depart- ment of biological science is that of the distribution of organized beings. This may be either distribution in space, geographical distribution: or distribution in time, paleontological distribu- tion. Both of these have of late years acquired increased signifi- cance, for we have begun to get more distinct glimpses of the laws by which they are controlled, of the origin of faunas and floras, and of the causes which regulate the sequence of hfe upon the
_ Time, however, will not allow me to enter upon this sub- ject as fully as its interest and importance would enbo and a
ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 37
few words on palzontological distribution are all that I can nów venture on. ;
The distribution of organized beings in time has lately come be- fore us in a new light by the application to it of the hypothesis of evolution. According to this hypothesis, the higher groups of or- _ ganized beings now existing on the earth’s surface have come down to us, with gradually increasing complexity of structure, by continuous descent from forms of extreme simplicity which çon- stituted the earliest life of our planet.
In almost every group of the animal kingdom the members which compose it admit of being arranged in a continuous series passing down from more specialized, or higher, to more general- ized or lower forms; and if we have any record of extinct mem- bers of the group, the series may be carried on through these. Now while the descent hypothesis obliges us to regard the various terms of the series as descended from one another, the most gener- alized forms will be found among the extinct ones, and the farther back in time we go the simpler do the forms become.
By a comparison of the forms so arranged we obtain, as it were, the law of the series, and can thus form a conception of the miss- ing terms and continue the series backwards through time, even where no record of the lost forms can be found, until from simpler to still simpler terms we at last arrive at the conception of a term so generalized that we may regard it as the primordial stock, the ancestral form from which all the others have been derived by descent. *
This root form is thus not actually observed, but is rather ob- tained by a process of deduction, and is therefore hypothetical. We shall strengthen, however, its claims to acceptance by the ap- plication of another principle. The study of embryology shows that the higher animals, in the course of their development, pass through transitory phases which have much in common with the permanent condition of lower members of the type to which they belong, and therefore with its extinct representatives. We are thus enabled to lay down the further principle that the individual, in the course of its own development from the egg to the fully formed state, recapitulates within that short period of time the va- rious forms which its ‘ancestry presented in consecutive epochs of the world’s history ; so that if we knew all the stages of its indi- vidual development, we should have a long line of its descent.
38 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.
Through the hypothesis of evolution, paleontology and embryology are thus brought into mutual bearing on one another.
Let us take an example in which these two principles seem to be illustrated. In rocks of the Silurian age there exist in great pro- fusion the remarkable fossils known as graptolites. These consist of a series of little cups or cells arranged along the sides of a com- mon tube, and the whole fossil presents so close a resemblance to one of the Sertularian hydroids, which inhabit the waters of our present seas, as to justify the suspicion that the graptolites consti- tute an ancient and long since extinct group of the Hydroida. It is not, however, with the proper cells or hydrothece of the Sertu- larians that the cells of the graptolite most closely agree, but rather with the little receptacles which in certain Sertularinæ belonging to
the family of the Plumularida we find associated with the hydro-
thecæ, and which are known as ‘*Nematophores.” A comparison of structure then shows that the graptolites may with considerable probability be regarded as representing a Plumularia in which the hydrothecs had never been developed and in which their place had been taken by the nematophores.
Now it can be shown that the nematophores of the living Plu- mularida are filled with masses of protoplasm: which have the — power of throwing out pseudopodia, or long processes of their sub- — stance, and that they thus resemble the Rhizopoda, whose soft parts consist entirely of a similar protoplasm and which stand among the Protozoa, or lowest group of the animal kingdom. If we suppose ~ the hydrotheca suppressed in a plumularian, we should thus nearly a convert it into a colony of Rhizopoda, from which it would differ — only in the somewhat higher morphological differentiation of its — cænosarc or common living bond, by which the individuals of the —
colony are organically connected. And, under this view, just such
a colony would a graptolite be, waiting only for the development — |
of hydrotheca to raise it into the condition of a plumularian.
Bringing now the evolution hypothesis to bear upon the ques- tion, t would follow that the graptolite may be viewed as an an- — | cestral form of the Sertularian hydroids, a form having the most intimate relations with the Rhizopoda; that.hydranths and hydro- — thecze became developed in its descendants ; and that the rhizo- podal graptolite became thus converted, in'the lapse of ages, into
the hydroidal Sertularian. —
This hypothesis would be strengthened if we found it agreeing
So EA
ae Sees ee eee code Pos eke sec ai ge s A a VE E ARE REENT N ER CENIE DIT S © OT E E A N FEN TI E AAOS EEDE SSeS EENET Re RNE
ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 39
with the phenomena of individual development. Now such Plu- mularida as have been followed in their development from the egg to the adult state do actually present well-developed nematophores before they show a trace of hydrothecæ, thus passing in the course of their embryological development through the condition of a graptolite, and recapitulating within a few days stages which it took incalculable ages to bring about in the paleontological devel- opment of the tribe.
I have thus dwelt at some length on the doctrine of evolution þè- cause it has given a new direction to biological study and must powerfully influence all future researches. Evolution is the high- est expression of the fundamental principles established by Mr. Darwin, and depends on the two admitted faculties of living be- ings— heredity, or the transmission of characters from the parent to the offspring; and adaptivity, or the capacity of having these characters more or less modified in the offspring by external agen- cies, or it may be by spontaneous tendency to variation.
The hypothesis of evolution may not, it is true, be yet estab- lished on so sure a basis as to command instantaneous acceptance ; and for a generalization of such vast significance no one can be’ blamed for demanding for it a broad and indisputable foundation of facts. Whether, however, wedo or do not accept it as firmly established, it is at all events certain that it embraces a greater number of phenomena and suggests a more satisfactory explana- tion of them than any other hypothesis which has yet been proposed. 3
With all our admiration, however, for the doctrine of evolution as one of the most fertile and comprehensive of philosophic hy- potheses, we cannot shut our eyes to the difficulties which lie in the way of accepting it to the full extent which has been sometimes claimed for it. It must be borne in mind that though among some of the higher vertebrata we can trace back for some distance in geological time a continuous series of forms which may safely be regarded as derived from one another by gradual modification — as has been done, for example, so successfully by Prof. Huxley in the case of the horse—yet the instances are very few in which such a sequence has been actually established ; while the first appearance in the earth’s crust of the various classes presents itself in forms which by no means belong to the lowest or most generalized of their living representatives. On this last fact, however, I do not
40 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.
lay much stress, for it will admit of explanation by referring it to the deficiency of the geological record, and then demanding a ` lapse of time—of enormous length, it is true—during which the necessary modifications would be in progress before the earliest phase of which we have any knowledge could have been reached. Again, we must not lose sight of the hypothetical nature of i those primordial forms in which we regard the -branches of our genealogical tree as taking their origin; and while the doctrine — of the recapitulation of ancestral forms has much probability, and harmonizes with the other aspects of the evolution doctrine into a beautifully symmetrical system, it is one for which a suffi- cient number of actually observed facts has not yet been adduced : to remove it altogether from the region of hypothesis. ‘ Even the case of the graptolites already adduced is an illustra-
tion rather than a proof, for the difficulty of determining the true S nature of such obscure fossils is so great that we may be alto- 4
gether mistaken in our views of their structure and affinities. L
kaaa aaa a a d ia a a a a a a a a aa
Par.
To me, however, one:of the chief difficulties in the way of the 4
doctrine of evolution, when carried out to the extreme length for
period of time whose vastness is such that the mind of man is utterly incapable of comprehending it. Vast periods, it is true, are necessary in order to render the phenomena of evolution pos- sible; but the vastness, which the antiquity of life, as shown by- ‘its remains in the oldest fossiliferous strata, requires us to give to these periods, may be even greater than is compatible with continuity. oe
We have no reason to suppose that the reproductive faculty in
which some of its advocates contend, appears to be the unbroken 4 continuity of inherited life which it necessarily requires through 4 a
had continued by inheritance through all the ramifications of single genealogical tree down to our own time; the branches the tree, it is true, here and there falling away, with the extinction : of whole genera and families and tribes, but still some alway remaining to carry on the life of the base through a period of time
ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 41
to all intents and purposes infinite. It is true that in a few cases a continuous series of forms regularly passing from lower to higher degrees of specialization, and very probably connected to another by direct descent, may be followed through long geological peri- - ods, as, for example, the graduated series already alluded to, which may be traced between certain mammals of the Eocene and others living in our own time, as well as the very low forms which have come down to us apparently unmodified from the epoch of the Chalk. But incalculably great as are these periods, they are but as the swing of the pendulum in the millennium, when compared to the time which has elapsed since the first animalization of our globe.
Is the faculty of reproduction so wonderfully tenacious as all this, that through periods of inconceivable duration, and exposed to influences the most intense and the most varied, it has still come down to us in an unbroken stream? Have the strongest which had survived in the struggle for existence necessarily handed down to the strongest which should follow them the power of continuing as a perpetual heirloom the life which they had themselves inherited? Or have there been many total extinctions and many renewals of life—a succession of genealogical trees, the earlier ones becoming old and decayed, and dying out, and their place taken by new ones which have no kinship with the others? Or, finally, is the doctrine of evolution only a working hypothesis which, like an algebraic fiction, may yet be of inestimable value as an instrument of research? For as the higher calculus becomes to the physical inquirer a power by which he unfolds the laws of the inorganic world, so may the hypothesis of evolution, though only a hypothesis, furnish the biologist with a key to the order and hidden forces of the world of life. And what Leibnitz and New- ton and Hamilton have been to the physicist, is it not that which Darwin has been to the biologist?
But even accepting as a great truth the doctrine of evolution,
let us not attribute to it more than it can justly claim. No vali evidence has yet been adduced to lead us to believe that inorganic matter has become transformed into living, otherwise than through the agency of a preéxisting organism, and there remains a resid- ual phenomenon still entirely unaccounted for. No physical hy- pothesis founded on any indisputable fact has yet explained the origin of the primordial protoplasm, and, above all, of its marvel- lous properties which render evolution possible. ;
myriad voices, to the ice-fields of polar latitudes and those si
the leading aspects of biological science, and to indicate the direc- grand and solemn import, for it embraces man himself and is the
it is life, and life stretches back into the illimitable past, a
42 ASPECT OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.
Accepting, then, the doctrine of evolution in all freedom andin — all its legitimate consequences, there remains, I say, a great resid- uum unexplained by physical theories. Natural Selection, the Struggle for Existence, the Survival of the Fittest, will’ explain much, but they will not explain all. They may offer a beautiful q and convincing theory of the present order and fitness of the or- ganic universe, as the laws of attraction do of the inorganic, but the properties with which the primordial protoplasm is endowed— ~ its heredity and its adaptivity—remain unexplained by them, for ~ these properties are their cause and not their effect. a
For the cause of this cause we have sought in vain among the physical forces which surround us, until we are at last compelled — to rest upon an independent volition, a far-seeing intelligent de- ~ sign. Science may yet discover even among the laws of physics the cause. it looks for; it may be that even now we have glimpses — of it; that those forces among which recent physical research has — demonstrated so grand a unity—light, heat, electricity, magnet- ~ ism—when manifesting themselves through the organizing proto- plasm, become converted into the phenomena of life, and that the : poet has unconsciously enunciated a great scientific truth when he — tells us of . |
“ Gay lizards glittering on the walls Of ruined shrines, busy and bright As though tk alive with light.”
But all this is only carrying us one step back in the grand gen eralization. All science is but the intercalation of causes, each
tions which biological studies must take. Our science is one 0 exponent of the laws which he must obey. Its subject is vast,
forward into the illimitable future. Life, too, is everywhere Over all this wide earth of ours, from the equator to the poles, there is scarcely a spot which has not its animal or its vegetable den: izens—dwellers on the mountain and on the plain, in the lake and on the prairie, in the arid desert and the swampy fen; from th tropical forest with its strange forms and gorgeous colors and
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 43
seas which lie beneath them, where living things unknown to warmer climes congregate in unimaginable multitudes. There is life all over the solid earth; there is life throughout the vast ocean, from its surface down to its great depths, deeper still than the lead of sounding line thas reached.
And it is with these living hosts, unbounded in their variety, infinite in their numbers, that the student of biology must make himself acquainted. It is no light task which lies before him — no mere pastime on which he may enter with trivial purpose, as though it were but the amusement of an hour; it is a great and solemn mission to which he must devote himself with earnest mind and with loving heart, remembering the noble words of Bacon : —
“ Knowledge is not a couch whereon to rest a searching and restless spirit; nor a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; nor a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; nor a fort or commanding- ground for strife and contention; nor a shop for profit and sale; but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man’s estate.
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
Tur Systematic Position or THE Bracurtorops.* —To those ac- customed to find the Brachiopods invariably mentioned in palæon- tological as well as zoological works as shell-fish, with no hint of an affinity to any other class of animals, the author’s remark at the beginning of his essay that ‘‘ the Brachiopoda are true worms, with possibly some affinities to the Crustacea, and that they have no relations to the Mollusca, save what many other worms may possess in common with them,” will seem in its nature somewhat iconoclastic. But we should remember that Cuvier regarded the barnacles as Mollusca, and it was not until 1830 that Thompson and Burmeister demonstrated from their mode of growth that these shell-bearing animals were undoubted Crustacea; the Serpule and
pirorbes were regarded as shell-fish by many collectors, and even —
*The Systematic Position of the Brachiopoda. By Edward S. Morse. (From the of the Boston Society of Natural History, xy. Published August, 1873. Svo. pp. 60.)
44 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
the bivalve phyllopods (Estheria) of our fresh-water pools are daily mistaken by collectors for species of Cyclas. On the other
Lingula pyramidata.
hand certain worms, such as the flat worms or Planarians, have ) been regarded as allied to the snails and slugs by good naturalists. We will now attempt, so far as is possible, to condense the
paper of Professor Morse by giving his chief arguments for con-
Fig. 2. ; Fig. 3. a i l b ;
Tra of Lingula. b, bands suspending intestine in perivis Transverse section of Annelid, after ceral cavity; i, intestine; s, segmental b, bands suspending intestine in per - organ; 0, ovaries; 1, liver; g, gills; se, se, ral riggs i, intestine; s, segmental sete. se, se, sete
Fig. 4. Fig. 5.
Molluscan archetype, after Carus. Transverse section ot monia- Can archetype, after Caru
idering the “‘Lamp-shells” as worms. He first defines the t classes. The worms haye an elongate form, while that of
è
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 45
mollusk is concentrated or sac-like; hence the term Saccata applied to them by Professor Hyatt.
In the mollusk the viscera are usually contained in a large chamber protruding above the foot, while in the worm ‘‘ the sym- metry of the body is never disturbed by the — viscera.” In the mollusk, moreover, the man- tle is sac-like, ‘‘inclosing a conspicuous cav- ity,” and protecting the gills, while the ali- mentary canal is straight in the worm, rarely convoluted, and suspended freely in the peri- m visceral cavity, by bands (Fig. 1, b); in the mollusk this organ is always sandali, and & intimately blended, or united, with other or- gans. The nervous system of the worms con- sists of a nerve collar from which start two parallel chains of ganglia,while in the mollusks foot; b - ays m, mouth; : rf there is a nerve collar, but no double chain, gill and instead, nerves are thrown out to the sensory, motor and parieto-splanchnic regions. The eggs of worms are usually (ex- cept in the leeches) set free in the general cavity of the body, which is not the case with the mollusks. Lastly, the embryo mollusk (Fig. 6) early develops a shell composed of one or two pieces, while the embryonic worm is usually distinctly ringed, as seen on the opposite page.
Here, in passing, we would remark that while the mollusks are admirably characterized, the author has, we think, failed to give sufficient importance to the most fundamental and important char- acter in the typical worm. Certainly the ringed, segmented structure of the worm is that which, more than any other char- acter, separates it from other animals, and when the rings are absent, as in the Planarians, Nematoids and other low worms, this is an adaptive character resulting from their peculiar habits. Moreover it should be remembered that our author regards the Brachiopods as a division of Chatopod worms, in which the seg- ments are invariably present, and form the most important feature of those animals. Again, we fail to find any reference to the re- lation of the most important anatomical systems (the nervous, cir- culatory system and digestive canal) to the walls of the body. e correlation in structure of the nervous system of the higher worms to the segmented structure is also most intimate and remarkable.
Fig. 6. s
Embryo yt vexed apa
46 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. i
Fig. 7.
Embryos of Worms.
Fig. 7, Serpula; Fig. 8, Spio: Fig. 9, Melicerta (Rotifer); Fig. 10, Pileolaria; Fig. Phoronis; (Pig: p Ah ei Figs. 8 and 10, from laparede ; F .9, from Huxley; F ? a =
o Embryos of Brachiopods.
Figa. 19. 12 14 mi E4. FFAN poe eo re ts 5 > ji f \ |
Figs. 15, 16, 17, Terebratulina (original).
wd
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 47
To this deficiency in the definitions, otherwise so full, we shall re- cur in noticing the author’s conclusions as to the more immediate relationship of the Brachiopoda. It may also be noticed that in none of the dia- grams of the transverse sections of the worms are the positions of the dorsal ves- sel or nervous cord in relation to the body walls indicated; and in this respect the same view of the mollusk is unsatisfac- | tory. This is said not so much by way of criticism, as to call attention to important Portion of Peduncle of Lin- i gula pyramidata, showing an- differences between the Brachiopods and nulations, and circulation of Cheetopodous worms, which demand seri- ous consideration in accepting the conclusions as to the precise systematic position of the Brachiopods claimed by the author. Farther on, in speaking of the general proportions of the body, it seems that the author does not lay much stress on the ringed Fig. 19, structure of the higher worms, of which it NEL should be borne in mind he considers the Brach- iopods to form a division. Thus it is stated, almost casually, that ‘‘a prominent character of the higher worms is the annulations or rings marking the body.” As, however, the annula- tions are wanting in certain low worms (i.e. the Notre bel co- Gephyrea or Sipunculoid worms, Sagitta, Nema- - median dorsa] t0idea, Acanthocephala*) the absence of this notch; 1, lateral noteh. character in the Brachiopods is unimportant; still, however, the peduncle Ree is “partially annulated” (Fig. 18). The comparison between the mollusks and worms is then ex-
Fig. 18.
Fig. 20.
suggestive way, the author a Head of Discina. Head of Sabella. that in the worms the integum is rarely ever extended bond x limits of the body ; but when
*It shonld be borne in mind that these worms are mostly parasitic, or, as in Sagitta ee very aberrant forms, and the absence of rings is probably a secondary or se alapin ive character.
48 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
it is it forms a broad cephalic collar, “covering the base of the arms in those worms possessing it (as in Sabella, Fig. 19), while in the Brachiopoda the collar covers and protects the arms,” and this collar is not to be compared with the mantle of mollusks. On
Fig. 22.
‘Longitudinal section of anterior portion of Lingula.
Fig. 23.
Longitudinal section of anterior portion of Amphitrite ventrilabrum. mouth; æ, esophagus; st, stomach; a, arm; ci, cirri; bf, brachial fold; cb, carti-
lngmons base of arm; 8, sinus leading to arm; ce, :, cephalic seller or pallial membrane- page 27 the cephalic region of the true worms is discussed, and the intimate relationship between the head of certain worms, such as Sabella and Amphitrite, and that of the Brachiopods, shown. This can be seen by a glance at the accompanying figures.
cannot farther abstract the condensed statement of the author:
By making a longitudinal section of the worm Amphitrite, and q
the brachiopod Lingula, the most interesting relationship may detected (Figs. 22 and 23).
4 T pore 5) EEE, eee eS Es
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 49
Considering the arms alone we are told that a transverse section of: a right arm of Amphitrite (Fig. 24) resembles that of Lingula, (Fig. 25) much more than ‘corres- Fig. 24. Fig: 25. ponding sections of two Brachiopods l resemble each other.”
Bristles like those of worms, moved by muscles, and quite unlike the stiff spines of the Chitons occur in the Brachiopods. The muscles of the integument bear the closest resem- blance to those of worms. The peri- visceral cavity is shown to be, like
: ; Transverse sec- that of worms, lined with a delicate sectionofarm tion of arm of Lin-
of Amphitrite gula pyra amidata. trilubrum. ci, cirri; bf, brachial fold; s, sinus.
eo 2
membrane and strongly ciliated. _ Prof. Morse has succeeded in finding a vessel on the dorsal surface of the intestine of Lingula, but not the vesicle described by Hancock. But still he, as well as others,
Fig. 26.
Fig. 27.
Fig. 28. Fig. 29. À \A \ A NA MA Amicula Emersonii. Nerine cirratulus. Discina. ihe papae Deciduous seta Deciduous seta — muscular pi EAk worm, of larval Discina, layer cirratulus, from Fritz Miiller. the girdle; Som C Claparède. bristles ime magni- 2 f girdle; b,
has never succeeded in studying the vascular system satisfactorily.
He, however, alludes to a pseudo-hæmal system of organs, being
a set of membranes which invest the oviducts, and has traced the
circulation in living arip hae This subject, and the circula- AMER. NATURALIST, VO. 4 :
50 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
tion of Lingula, which has red blood, is reserved for discussion in a subsequent memoir. The digestive canal of the Brachiopods, as well as the circulatory system, does not compare well with those of the normal worms.
“The anomalous features presented by some worms, in the absence of an anus, or the possession of a ccecal stomach, and the anterior termination of the anus, are fully repeated in the Brachiopoda. In one entire division of the ‘ag mage iat rene sented by Terebratula, the stomach terminates in a cecal s In Terebratulina the alimentary tract is closed posteriorly. Not
has the slightest trace of an anus been detected in Thecidium, |
Waldheimia, Rhynchonella, and several other genera that have been examined. In the very early stages of Terebratulina, I
has
Terebratulina, the alimentary tract pursues a direct antero- poste- rior course without convolutions, while in Lingula and Discina the anus terminates anteriorly on the right side. In Lingula, the in- testine makes a few turns, while in Discina it makes a single turn to the right.”
The nervous system is much as in the worms, there being two lateral ventral cords, widely separated (in Lingula these lateral threads seem to be double and connected by commissures) and connected at the esophagus by ganglionic enlargements, which send off threads to the pallial membranes, and to the various mus- cles. The breathing organs of Brachiopods are contained in the pallial membrane, which is divided into two oblique transverse sinuses, apparently resembling the interior of the branchia of a worm. The genital organs are almost identical with those of worms, as may be seen by a study of Figs. 30-40.
We now quote the author’s conclusions in his own words :—
“In considering the assemblage of remarkable characters in the Brachiopods, we must recognize in them a truly ancient a and. consequently a synthetic, or comprehensive type. hus while we do not find them in all their characters ented any one group of worms, I have endeavored to show that all their features, to a greater or less degree, are shared by one or the
th various pope of the Vermes, with one or two features shared by the Arthre
It is important to remark in this connection that most of the ancient groups differ from present groups with which they are
a Thus the Trilobites are widely unlike modern Crus- touk AS, Milne-Edwards and Van Beneden suggesting t their affini-
AE DRS N EE MA A SE ENE eg NEE «i Sele ASA ae ot SESE E E eee ED
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 51
Fig. 31. Fig. 32.
Segmental organs of worms. Lumbricus; Fig. 31, Pectinaria; Fig. 32, Eunice; Fig. 33, Stylodrilus; Fig. 34, o:
_ Fig. 30, . Nereis; se, segmental rgan,
genitalia, v, vascular channel, 7, intestine; Fig. 30 is from Lankester, the rest From Clapartde, ao se : . Fig. 36. Fig. 37 Fig. 38.
Segmental organs of the Brachiopods.
Fig. 35, Discina; Lingula; Fig. 37, Rhynchonella; Fig. 38, Terebratulina. Sichuacvece me ives Ealo np Sret Pal Ag i en ae
52 : REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES..
ties with the Arachnids. Tetrabranchiate Cephalopods are widely separated from the Dibranchiate Cephalopods. Crinoids are widely unlike modern Echinoderms. In other words, among the Mollusks, Echinoderms and Crustaceans are ancient types widely different from the modern types with which they are correlated. So in worms we should expect to see ancient types, while pa senting a high organization, yet differing from e? esent groups to which they are unquestionably related. ‘And fro the high complication of structure of the Arathi. Wie. opods, “Tetrabranchiates, and other ancient types, it would seem that in their culmination in ancient times they had i same relation to animals living then as the higher groups of present times bear to their ee As to the more ancient forms of Brachiopods, it is probable with them, as with other groups, that their lower members were soft- bodied, and the argument that has been urged, as militating against Darwin, that animals of high complication of structure occur in the older ney tt becomes valueless, when we consider that e lower forms of their respective groups are more often soft-bodied, and that complicated forms of earlier times wn -a Sea forms of preexisting gr To sum up the aks eh :—ancient Cheetopod Alciope Cantrainii. worms culminated in two parallel lines, on the m, inner mouth, one hand in the Brachiopods, and on the other, in oui ae ype ee the fixed and highly cephalized Cheetopods. The orifice of dito; b an rab of the Brachiopods, having been at- : in more ancient times, a few degraded features are yet re- tained, whose relationships we find in the lower Vermes; while from their later divergence the fixed
Fig. 40.
close allied to present free Chæto- . pod
S.
pods, Sabella, Protula and other
Chætopods Segmental He P SIN
Of ditto; e extemal orifice ar ae Aside from the great interest of
orifice of ditto;
A Resp naa a, accessory vesi- the memoir, the skilful and concise — manner in which the facts, — many discovered by the author himself after the most patient ee
which would in —— commend the work fa SYR, one —4
o fe mental organ of 4
tie cephalized Annelides are more —
| i 4 * eo eal in as modern (later) pees 7
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 58
presented, we think the author has demonstrated, in the clearest manner, that the Brachiopods are worms. And we congratulate ourselves that this important discovery of the obscure relationship of these animals has been made by an American naturalist, with the advantages presented in this country.
Still, from the facts so clearly set forth, we doubt whether the Brachiopods should, even with all the important'Chætopod charac- ters they present, be included in the division of Chætopod worms, but rather look forward to their being united with the Polyzoa in a division equivalent, perhaps, to the rest of the worms, at least the Chætophora and Discophora combined, and forming a somewhat parallel group. The Brachiopods, certainly, from Prof. Morse’s own showing, have not either such a nervous system, Or respira- tory or circulating organs, or an annulated body, as would warrant their union with the Chetopods. He has fully proved that they are a synthetic type, combining the features of different groups of worms and other articulate animals, and in doing so he virtually forbids our sharing his view as to their special Cheetopod nature. We would prefer, in speculating on their ancestry, to derive the Brachiopods and Polyzoa from a common vermian ancestry, not much higher than the Rotifers, from which sprung two stems; one resulting in the Polyzoa, and the other in the more highly and specially-developed Brachiopods, while the Cheetopods were prob-. -ably derived independently from an ancestry higher perhaps, but vaguely resembling the Rotifers. As to the molluscan affinities of these animals, let those prove them who can, after. going over step by step the track revealed by the patient. and toilsome re- searches of our author.
NORTH AMERICAN Grassnorprers.*—Dr. Hayden proposes to collect, in a single quarto volume, papers upon the zoology and botany of the Rocky Mountain region explored by him in his gov- ernment surveys. The fishes and reptiles will be elaborated by Professor Cope, the botany by Professor Porter, Hemiptera by Mr. Uhler, Coleoptera by Dr. Horn, birds by Dr. Coues and mammals by Professor Gill. The first part, on a portion of the Orthoptera, is now published, and if the whole work is executed upon the same scale, one volume cannot contain it all: let us hope that it will not. In the part before us, Dr. Thomas does not "Report of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories. F. V. Hayden, Geologist in charge. Vol. v, Zoology and Botany. Part i, Synopsis of the Acrididæ of North America, by Cyrus Thomas, Ph.D. 4to. pp. xX, ashington,
op aA TE a
54 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.
confine himself to the study of Rocky Mountain forms, but includes the Acridians of the whole of North America. It is pre- ' ceded by an introductory statement of the external and internal structure of insects of this group, with especial reference to parts — used in description ; by an exposition of the author’s idea of clas- sification and by notes on the geographical distribution of the genera and species. In the body of the work one hundred and twenty species and twenty-five genera of U. S. Acridians are described ; forty species and four genera as new. In the second part, the extra-limital species are described, but no new species are mentioned; and nearly all the descriptions, as well as many of those in the first part, are borrowed ; it would have been well if the author had appended the describers’ names. The work is ac- companied by a well executed plate (none too large) in which, strange to say, neatly one-third of the figures are of European species,—copied from Fischer’s work ; surely, from the abundant material in the author’s possession, suitable specimens could have been found for illustration. ;
Brrrisa Marie SeawreDs.*—This is a convenient little book, of which four parts have already appeared, and five or six are to follow. Mr. Grattan, whose home is at Torquay in Devonshire, a place famous in the history of British natural history, is 4 thorough enthusiast in seaweeds, and finding that the standard treatises on them were too scientific for the use of ordinary ama-
teurs, and withal quite expensive, he has prepared this work, _ which is so simple that the most inexperienced student can readily — understand it, whilé the price, sixpence sterling for each part, is — moderate enough. Since a very large proportion of our New England alge consists of species occurring on the shores of Great Britain, and since Harvey’s Nereis, the only work on the alge of the United States, is costly and not suited to the needs of ama- teurs, this book will be very useful to those who not only collect, but desire to know something about seaweeds and sea-mosses.— Dante, C. Eaton, © 7 .
Lupsocx’s Monocrapy or tue Popurx.—Sir. John Lubbock has recently published a ‘‘ Monograph of the Collembola and Thy-
sanura.” It forms a volume, in octavo, of the Ray Society. The *)
British Marine Alge: being a popular account of the Seaweeds of Great Britain, their collection and preservation. Illustrated. By W. H. Grattan. London: “The Bazaar” office, 32 Wellington street, Strand, VC. <
s
BOTANY. 55
work is beautifully, indeed lavishly, illustrated with seventy-eight plates, of which thirty-one are colored, nearly every plate repre- senting a distinct species highly magnified. The work will com- mend itself to microscopists, as it is accompanied by an essay, by Mr. Joseph Beck, on the scales of certain Poduræ, with figures of the scales highly magnified.
BOTANY.
IRRITABILITY OF THE LEAVES OF THE SuNDEw.—In our last number attention was called to the old observations of Roth re-
` specting the irritability of Drosera leaves. It will be interesting
to our readers to glance at a short abstract of Roth’s treatise.* The author begins by referring to the difficulty of drawing any line of demarcation between animals and plants. Some plants were believed, by the ancient philosophers, to possess a soul, since they appear to share with animals a kind of sensitiveness and motion. The word sensitiveness is, on some accounts, objectionable and it may be better, therefore, to employ the term irritability. A few plants possess this irritability in a high degree, but may we not as- cribe to others, irritability less in degree? The author next refers to the kindred plants Dionea muscipula and Drosera, intimating that the latter has, in a slight degree, the kind of irritability which characterizes the flytrap. He then describes the action of Dionza in catching insects, and proceeds to give an account of the two more common species of sundew, Drosera rotundifolia and longi-
olia.
In July, 1779, while on a botanical excursion, Roth observed that some leaves of both species of Drosera had closed. Upon sepa- rating the infolded surfaces, he discovered dead insects, whereupon
asked himself whether sundew did not act just as Dionæa does. He transferred healthy plants to his house and proceeded to make the following experiments : —
lst. He placed, by a pair of pincers, an ant on the open leaf of Drosera rotundifolia. As soon as the ant tried to recover its free- dom, the hairs of the leaf turned towards his body, and the edges
of the leaf rolled over towards him. In a few minutes the ant was oe eee pare 5 EA eee
nm yoo 4
-*Von der Reizbarkeit der Blätter des sog ten S ii folia, longifolia.) Beyträge zur Botanik, Erster theil. s.60. Von Albrecht Wilhelm Roth. Bremen, 1782. On the Irritability of the Leaves of the so-called Sundew (Dro- a rotundifolia). p.60. By Albrecht Wilhelm Roth. 1732
56 : BOTANY.
concealed in the infolded leaf. The insect was killed by this im- prisonment. This experiment was repeated upon other leaves and with nearly the same results.
2nd. He placed a little fly, being careful not to injure it, on a leaf of Drosera rotundifolia. The insect made some movements to gain his liberty, but he soon died, as did the ants in the previous exper- iments. The hairs bent inwards as before. The experiment began at eleven a.m. At five o'clock P. m: the leaf had completely closed _ and held the fly within.
The third observation was made upon a specimen of Drosera longifolia. An ant was employed, and with the same results as be- fore. It is interesting to note the following on p: 64:—‘‘ Dieses Zusammenklappen erfolgt aber auch ebenso wenn man ein Stroh- halmchen oder eine Stecknadel zwischen dieselben bringt.”
The author makes some remarks relative to the similarity of ac- tion in the two genera, Dionzea and Drosera. The most interesting note, however, is that in respect to the purpose of the irritability.
“Mr. Ellis suggests in his letter to Linnæus that nature, by the formation of the leaf of Dionzea, may perhaps have designed it to aid in its nourishment. Schreber, however, believes it is unlikely that plants should draw nourishment from insects pressed between their leaves. It is certain that we cannot determine positively what object the wise Creator may have had in giving to these plants this wonderful structure and irritability, but I believe that we may assume safely that this structure and faculty of these plants may tend, through this nourishment, to the preservation and propagation of their kind. We cannot yet determine whether these plants may not need for their support animal juices. Besides, knowing as We do that these plants have, chiefly on their leaves, an apparatus by which they may draw from the air foreign bodies a their nourish- ment, we have no reason to doubt this possibility.’
The author claims that no one had preceded him in this investi- gation.
_ In 1802, Roth published the following note (Neue Beyträge zur Botanik, von Al. W. Roth. Erster Theil. Frankf. am Mayn. 1802. p. 185). ‘In Droseris Germanicis simile phenomenon 0b- servatur et non minus miraculosum, quam in Dionsea muscipula, Foliorum scilicet pili apice oriferi ab Insecto irritati inflectuntur, inflexi Insectum incarcerant, et folium demum complicatum incar- ceratum tenet.”
ZOOLOGY. 57
Passing over the statements in De Candolle’s ‘‘ Introduction à étude de la Botanique” (Tome 1, p. 415) 1835; in Treviranus’ Physiologie der Gewachse (1838, vol. ii, s. 759), in Meyen’s Neues System der Planzen Physiol. vol. iii, s. 550, we find in Botanische Zeitung, June 29, 1860, an article by Nitschke, de- tailing an extensive series of experiments upon Drosera. These results, together with the very curious observations published in Comptes Rendus last year, we will present at an early day, feel- ing quite confident that many of our readers will carefully repeat _ some of these experiments during the coming season.—G. L. G.
ZOOLOGY.
A New Acertan Marre Borer. — Last June my attention was drawn to numerous castings, similar to those of the peach tree borer ( Trochilium exitiosum Say) projecting from the trunk of the soft maple trees surrounding our university yard. Having approached one of these trees I found several moths already hatched out, the most of the maple trees having been destroyed by this pernicious insect, which, boring in the bark and sap-wood, not only hinders the sap from circulating, but also enfeebles the trunk so that it is no es ad able to support the weight of its foliage.
During this summer a dozen of these trees were broken down, and the few still standing are in such a condition that I believe they will not resist the winds of a second season. This condition of things induced me to pay close attention to this insect — study- ing its habits and collecting specimens. I failed to find it de- scribed in any of the entomological works of the university library and I have been informed that Dr. Le Baron, State Ento- mologist, was not aware of any Ægerians feeding on the maple tree.
My confidence in this second statement having been reénforced by a similar answer of several men of experience that I consulted on the matter, I came to the conclusion that this insect is a new destroyer and enemy of our best shade tree. I therefore give you a description* of this insect, adding what I could observe on its
*TROCHILIUM ACERICOLUM, n. sp. The female, he perfect insect of this Ægeria, measures across saa wings from "13-16 om 15-16 of an spe its wings are transparent. Fore wines; the tips yellowish, opaque, with black veins; front margin and fringe black; a steel-blue transverse band Br their middle. HIND WINGS with a
58 GEOLOGY.
habits in the last two months and a half. It feeds on the inner bark and on the sap-wood. When fully fed it spins its cocoon near the surface of the outer bark. Early in the morning it makes its way out of the cocoon and the very thin layer of bark that covers it, leaving the cast skin half emerged from the orifice on the trunk, and appearing in a winged state. The females in lay- ing their eggs, select the roughest places of any part of the trunk —and not of the base only, as the T. exitiosum— where they de- posit them one in a place. The larv are found under the bark at any time and in all sizes. — P. Grrmapius, Champaign, Ill.
A spinous Fix 1x a Minnow.—A genus of fishes (Protistius Cope) has been recently discovered in the Ecuadorian Andes, which in its general structure appears to belong to the bull-min- nows (Cyprinodontide). Its head and mouth, however, resemble those of a mullet (Mugil) and it has a rudimental spinous dorsal fin consisting of a single small spine, which is bound to the back by membrane so as to be capable of but little erection.
GEOLOGY. |
RETURN or Proressor Marsn’s Expepition.—Prof. O. C. Marsh and party returned to New Haven, November 7th, after an absence of five months in the Rocky Mountain region and on the Pacific Coast. The present expedition had the same object in view as those of previous years, viz: a study of the vertebrate fossils of the west, especially those of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations. The first explorations this year were made in the Pliocene deposits
near the Niobrara River. The party fitted out in June at Fort a
pote spot in the sus * the fore margin; fringe black. TAIL irae tuft) deep ge. ve steel-blue; Genneatii, except the second rin
m metasternum, -yellow. tian isiy sipit oy eee black eyes, in the front part of each of which is a white silvery spot. PALPI orange. TONGU - distinct, spiral, ‘ots 3-16 of an inch. ‘The male differs from the female in being somewhat smaller, having the fringe brown-golden; ra S oa. above of a lighter steel-blue, inclining to a bronze, and beneath of a more intense golden-yellow; hairs of the tail of a steel-blue color half-
way from the base, and the remaining of paler orange. In a word, he is of a lighter color than th e female.
an inch.
is whitish, hairy, head brown; length 910 inch and diameter 18 of
SOI Sete
MICROSCOPY. 59
McPherson, Nebraska, and, accompanied by an escort of two companies of U. S. Cavalry, proceeded to the Niobrara, and worked in that country for several weeks. Owing to hostile In- dians, the explorations of the party here were attended with much difficulty and danger, but were on the whole quite successful. Many new animals were discovered, and ample material secured for a full investigation of those previously known from that region. ;
A second expedition was made in August from Fort Bridger, -
Wyoming, and large collections of Eocene fossil vertebrates were obtained, especially of the Dinocerata, Quadrumana and Cheirop- tera, which had first been brought to light by the researches of the party in previous years. A third trip was made in September to the Tertiary beds of Idaho and Oregon, where some interest- ing discoveries were made. The party went from Oregon to San Francisco by sea, narrowly escaping shipwreck, and then re- turned east by rail. On the way, short visits were made to local- ities in Colorado and Kansas, to complete investigations begun last year. The expedition as a whole was very successful, not merely on account of the large number of new animals discovered, but also on account of the extensive collections made to complete the study of those previously found. All of the collections se- cured are now in the museum of Yale College. —
MICROSCOPY.
A New Section Currer.—Prof. T. D. Biscoe has contrived a new section cutter which is principally adapted for preparing sec- tions of soft vegetable tissues and organs, such as leaves, buds, ete. It consists essentially of a large glass stage-plate upon which the object is fastened, and a movable frame to slide upon this, car- rying a razor blade at an adjustable distance from the plate. This apparatus cuts sections of objects while they are under observation on the stage of the microscope, under powers as high as the 3 inch (X 80); and with it Prof. Biscoe has been able to cut series of fifteen consecutive sections, each one of which was perfect and the average thickness of which was şgyg inch. The following is his description of the contrivance.
“Fig. 41 is a plate that fits on to the stage of the microscope with a tight friction, yet so that it has movements of an inch or
a
EJ 60 MICROSCOPY.
more in any direction, so that the object can be brought into the field of view; ais a glass plate held in place by the two pieces of wood with screws on the right and left; bis the wooden base of the affair with an oval opening for the illuminating apparatus to come up; this wooden base being covered on the inner or upper side with velvet to make smooth the friction on the under side of the stage. For use with a mechanical stage this arrangement is modified and much simplified, the large glass plate being merely attached to the stage, whose screw movements enable the object to be brought into the field of view. On the middle of the upper side of the glass plate are cemented four strips of glass as shown, just far enough apart to take in a common glass slide which is held in place by a couple of wedges of common sheet brass ; and on the middle of a slide is fastened the object to be cut, either with gum
Fig. 41.
arabic or sometimes with collodion. For holding hard objects like wood the arrangements are not ue quite perfected, but no special difficulty is expected.
Fig. 42 gives a perspective view of the triangular wooden frame that holds a razor blade, r, whose edge and back come down lower than the rest of the frame. By means of the three screws with graduated heads the whole frame, razor and all, is raised or low- _ ered from the glass plate (a, Fig. 41) on which the triangle rests _ and slides with these three screws as its feet. ‘These three sup- — porting screws are cut with a thread that counts forty to the inch; the screw head is divided into one hundred equal parts, and can be _ moved without much difficulty through half of one division, a ~ a vertical motion of s;4,5 inch to the cutting edge. 4
MICROSCOPY. 61
Fig. 43 is a large view of one of the screws, with its indicator. The indicator may be a simple pin set in the wooden frame, but is more convenient if made movable around the axis of the screws, so that when the razor is returned after sharpening they may be all turned around to the 0 of their respective screws and therefore all read alike while the successive cuts are being made. On the side of the indicators are scales which show how many com- plete revolutions of the screws have been made. These indicators should move quite stiffly, so as not to be accidentally misplaced when turning the screw heads.
With the hands upon the triangle and the eye at the microscope tube, the razor can be moved so that its edge shall either make a drawing cut or push straight through the object like a chisel, ac-
Fig. 42. Fig. 43.
cording as either method or any gradation between them suits best the nature of the substance cut. Thus perfectly even slices can be cut, and it is quite easy to take them in consecutive order even when called off in the midst of the work and compelled to wait half an hour before resuming it. It is a luxury to take off slice after slice and know that there is no danger of losing just the slices you want especially to see. The object is kept wet with glycerine, and just as the razor begins to cut, a drop of glycerine is pl on its edge in which the slice floats without sticking ; though care must be taken in the case of very thin and small sec- tions not to lose them in a large drop of glycerine in which they would be found with great difficulty. By this method slices gobo of an inch in thickness, or rather in thinness, can be all worked out nicely, though before it was adopted such thin slices were all
62 NOTES.
torn, so as to be unrecognizable. Whether a blade can be made to cut any thinner than that has not been tried; but it may be re- marked that the first razor blade used gave out at s}55 inch thick, and would not take an edge capable of cutting finer than that.”
NOTES.
AFTER twenty-seven years of unremitting toil for the advance- ment, the exaltation and free spread of science in this country, the land of his adoption, Louis Agassiz died, in the ripeness of his years, Dec. 14, aged sixty-six. It is not the time now to estimate Professor Agassiz’s scientific attainments and compare him with his contemporaries, but to mourn the loss of one whose profound learning and genius for original research ; whose organizing abili- ties, courageous adherence to the dictates of his conscience when matters of scientific faith were at stake; whose persuasive elo- quence, rare personal magnetism, conspicuous enthusiasm, and untiring industry which, though it shortened his life, intensified its value, made him one of the remarkable men of the century.
A student and friend of Humboldt and Cuvier, and enjoying the instructions of Oken, Tiedemann and others, he certainly had won- derful advantages, and by his native genius and sturdy industry made the most of them, his reputation being more than European before he was thirty years of age. At the age of thirty-nine he came to this country, travelled extensively, and extended his gla- cial theory to include both hemispheres. Here he began to build up the Museum of Comparative Zoology, his singleness of purposes rare personal qualities and disinterested zeal, winning him friends and means for carrying on that vast establishment. Meanwhile he travelled and lectured over the country ; everywhere by his native unaffected eloquence winning men to a just appreciation of the objects and needs of science, and elevating and dignifying the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. He was an admirable teacher, and introduced new methods of studying zoology. He gathered
based on the spirit of Cuvier, who moulded Agassiz himself in his.
student days.
him a number of young men, some of whom were — associated with him in the preparation of the material for his great 4 work, “Contributions to the Natural History of the United — States ;” and so powerful was his influence over his students that — he may be said to have founded a school in natural history, —
Ea Se iad he han ode te ee ee SNES
Ab Ae
Te aS. eure, Seek Fi Pry haf
PR Se eae od a
Speke
NOTES. 63
Then came his Brazilian journey, with the immense zoological treasures accruing. Hardly resting from this exploration he or- ganized the Hassler Expedition around the continent of South , America, under the auspices of the Coast’Survey, and recuperated his shattered health on that long voyage. Finally, he established, with the aia of its liberal founder, the Anderson School of N atural History, and it was there in his disinterested labors in behalf of improved methods of teaching in our higher and normal schools that he undoubtedly overworked himself and lost the strength to resist the strain of duties and cares that multiplied during the succeeding autumn.
He died literally in the harness; full of plans for the develop- ment of his great museum, for the enlargement and full success of the Anderson School at Penekese Island, meanwhile doing origi- nal work at the museum, writing a course of articles for the “ At- lantic Monthly,” and preparing some papers for this journal ; all this, while performing his college duties in the lecture rooms and laboratories of the museum, with a course of popular Jectures at Washington on his hands, and meanwhile not unmindful of the calls of social life.
Professor Agassiz was perhaps the most widely known and popular man in the United States. In his death it may be said that science has lost one of its most gifted followers, and humani- ty, in his long devotion to all that tends to elevate the race, one of its best types.
Ir will be seen by the following letter, dated San Francisco, Cal., Dec. 2, 1873, from Mr. W. H. Dall, that the explorations of which he has charge have been quite successful :—
“We have had a very successful season, though the spring was a very late one, and have accomplished more than I dared to hope at first. Our work lay in the islands between Attu and the Shu- magins. We have visited nearly every point of interest in the
64 BOOKS RECEIVED.
ebrated Bogosloff reef, finding 800 fathoms without bottom where | it is laid down on the ¢ghart. We found the magnetic variation to be less easterly than when the last observations were ta
During our leisure natural history was not neglected, and we now have a magnificent geographical collection, especially in marine invertebrates. In birds, too, we did very well, and especially in o ce
as we went west. We got several hundred wood carvings from allie about three hundred bone and stone implements and thirty- x prehistoric crania and some later ones.
BOOKS RECEIVED. oe ee with oe By Edwin Lankester. 12mo,pp.180. 9 pl. G.P. Putnam’s ns, New York, 1874, ; Schriften der koniglicken phys sikalisch-okonomischen Gesellschaft zu Konigsberg. 4to. Jahr- gang 13, Abtheilung 2, Konigsber Tete ne $
Archiv fur A hropologie, 4to, Bd. vi. Hefi 2. Braunschweig. 872, Memoires de la Societe de piira ia el P a votre Naturelle de Gehie. ee T. 22, Geneve, l Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou. 8vo. 1873, No. l. Mo 18, Bericht uber die Thatigheit d der St, og ee Gesellschaft wahrend des einsjahr 1-72, 8yo. St. Ga eek 7 Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological $ 8vo, Vol. ii, Pt. ii, Edinburgh, 1873. z Tillæg til Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed o¢ 09, | His toire. aaran 1871, Aa arang 1872. (Udgi vet af det kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab, Kjobenhavn, 1871, "1872
D; Memoires de la Societe Royale des Antiquaires Fay penra 8vo, 1872. Copenhague. On the Origin ane Metam orpaines of deseets. By Sir John Lubbock. 12mo, pp. 108. 6 plates. 63 woodcuts, on, TE AcMillan & C the An n Investigation, concernir the pena sm of the nt icles of Hearing and the Membrane of Round Window. By y Charles H. Burnett. 0, pp. New York, 1 i ; Catalogue of ih Lowe Fossils, OEE n "Group, Sound at Cincinnati and Vicinity, within a range of forty or fifty miles. By U. P. James. a p. 14. Cincinnati, Sept., 1871. Bulletin of the A an e P Siege V. 11, 18) plementary ete OF jogical Reconnoissance of the State of Louisiana, made under teens aus vo of the New Orleans, jpet jawed gei Ss of the Bureau of Immigra: a- tion of the State of Louisian and June, 1869, ne W. Hilgard. 8vo, pp. 4% New e: 873 nnua
4 Se 5 BS
i avo, ; o ecniy fourth Anniat | pols po nthe New Tin k State fe ‘useium of Natural History by the Regents State of New York. : ort on th
ori , at iples of Animal Mechanics, By Samue Rei es ton. 8V0, Vol., PD. 495, 111 Iilustrations. h s&C
ı 1873. Zoological Record for 1871. 8v0. vol., pp. saye London, 1873. My Voors isi the Extra-tr l North American Species of the Genera Lu a us, Pot silta al Œnothera. By ree ag Watson, (Proc, Am, A Arts and Beiras, vol, viii, ua 3, I an Re agin hte der physikalisch-medicinischen Societat zu Erlangen. 8vo. Heitd. Er
n, 1873, gr Oe the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories. By Joseph Leidy. bey beg tee 37 io Washington, 1873, Hayden’s Geological Survey U. 8. Ter erent
of North America drawn from life and uniforml: reduced to one-quarter their Nat- ural Size. By Theodore Jasper. pia a ssued A thors A 4 parts Siaa +04. eali Americane. By Coe F. Austi 0, pp. Noster, N Pa att the Trustees of the ~ ri of r for Isis. B Zoolo a eA bs with of t rector r O, . 36. sto! Land and fal London, Nov. > ies 73, P cience Monthly. New Yor: The. hare. cre N ts London, Nov. 6-Dee. 4, 1873. : Ys Ast ov. l= ature. Londo c, 4 Science Gossip. London, Nov., Dec., 1873. meric Bee Jeurnek Chicago ea Acrentifiqu e Paris, Nov. l-Dee. 20, 1873. Naturaliste Canadien. Q ec, Nov., D ia yo reg: sso Magazine. London, anadian Entomologist Vol . V, NOS. i il, London, $ Horticulturist, New York, Novy. Dec., 1873. Proceedi sand Transactions of the ; ergg at te |e age hy Naturai Sci- tian Paital of Natural y sen ence of Mar., Sept., Vol. iii, pt 3, 1872-73. a tof Ba oe or oon en of Science and = paar ‘any. London, No oe : aven, e 1873. ea. London, September, Gardener's Monthly. Philadelphia, Dee,. 15
and Stream. New York, toe 1, 1874,
ot BURR > p8 - t
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
Vol. VIII.— FEBRUARY, 1874.— No. 2. COP ORYVOD >
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
BY THEO. B. COMSTOCK, B.S.
I. ITS SCIENTIFIC VALUE.
Ir is now generally understood that a bill was passed by the 4ist Congress, by which the tract of land known as the “ Yellow- . Stone National Park” was “reserved and withdrawn from settle-
“ ment, occupancy or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
The writer of this article, having spent some weeks during the past summer in the study of the geological features of this remark- able region, has visited all its points of interest, and collected much material for the elaboration of a report, which is now in course of preparation. Dr. Hayden has already led two well equipped expeditions into this country,* while smaller parties have gathered more or less valuable material concerning the phenom- ena there exhibited.t The leaders of all of these expeditions
* See hore Survey of Regen etc, 1871; also Geological Survey of Mon- z and Ul 872.
: at j th f Cook and Folsom, who as-
rst H ind Madi Ri 1869: Lieut. G. : =S: Cavalry (accompanying Gen. Washbúrn) in 1870, who reported briefly to Gen. hasan’ and Capts. Barlow and Heap, U. S. Engineer Corps, whose report to Gen. Sheridan was published in 1872. Hon. N. P. Langford, ex-governor of
Montana, now superintendent of the park, has also published a number of interesting PS ar articles concerning its its marvels.
< se Sin aE a to Act of Cong Librarian of araa a Wr nabs fe srs ets
66 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
seem to have been satisfied with the conclusion reached by Colonel Wm. F. Raynolds, who, attempting to reach this region from the _ head waters of Wind River without success, decided that such a route was wholly impracticable. Since 1859, the date of Ray- nolds’ expedition, all explorers have taken it for granted that the ‘sources of Wind River can only be reached from the head waters of Yellowstone River, by making a détour so as to cross the Wind River mountains through Union pass. Impressed with this idea, entrance has heretofore been made from the northward by way of forts Ellis and Bozeman in Montana, with the one exception of a portion of Dr. Hayden’s command of last year, which entered by ascending the valley of Snake River, under the guidance of Mr. James Stevenson. It was natural, therefore, that much interest should attach to the results attained by an expedition, which took the field during the past summer, with the expressed intention of solving as much as possible of the mystery overhanging the struct- ure of the unexplored territory adjacent to the park on the south and east.* The northwestern Wyoming expedition, under the command of Capt. W. A. Jones, Chief Engineer of the Department of the Platte, after an extended tour of exploration among the complicated mountain ridges of the Wind River drainage, entered | the park by a new route. Ascending one of the forks of the — Stinking Water to its source in the high and rugged volcanic wall
* The interesting geological results of this expedition are enumerated in an article by i the writer, on the Geology of Western Wyoming, in the Amer. Jour. of Sci., Dec., 1873. _
that the Stinking Water River, to which I now allude, is an important tributary of the ray Horn, and not the mien Water Creek so often mentioned by Hayden, which a tributary of Jefferson Fork of p Missouri. Stinking Water River is in Wyo- ‘aiid, Stinking W alae Ordak tik Meat as. While upon this subject I would ok if some measures cannot be adopted to prevent this pes o confusion of names. _ Why would it not be wise to substitute, as far a8 possible of those
now in use? Certainly the majority of the Indian names are much eferable to their English translations g
ttt the na ‘show the extent of this polynomial evil I have compiled the following tof the names of streams, which oceur more than once within a distance of thr
Powder River 2, Jon ihe ore 2, Téton ma Snake River 2, Sa 5, Cot
, ge Creek 5, ' aes tonwood 3, Muddy 5, Dry Creek 4, Clear Creek 2, Sour C ae “ Deep Creek 2, Spring Creek 3, Beaver Creek3, Elk Creek 3, Deer Creek 2, REA paie per Creek 2, Bitter iak eare eoa ra bl ater 2. Thus w ixty- ae
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 67
on the east of Yellowstone Lake, a pass was discovered through which the pack-train was guided safely, but with considerable diffi- culty. This route, though in some respects preferable to the present circuitous way of entering the park, is not destined to be made available to tourists, owing to the engineering difficulties to be surmounted, and the comparatively slight saving in the dis- tance. Upon the return of the expedition, however, a very practi- cable entrance was discovered, by way of the head of Wind River, from the southward. Through this new pass, which Capt. Jones has appropriately named 7%6-g0-té,* after our Shoshone guide, a railroad may be constructed with little difficulty to connect with the Union Pacific at Rawlins, which would sate to tourists from the east at least five hundred miles of travel in each direction. This would render the park and the Montana settlements readily acces- sible, and unlock the rich mineral deposits of the Wind River valley and the Sweetwater (Wyoming) mining region. Here also a fine agricultural country is awaiting development, and already herds of excellent cattle are to be seen grazing in the rich pastures of the smaller valleys.
While traversing that portion of this region now reserved for the general public, embracing the greater number of the hot springs and geysers, I was very deeply impressed with a sense of the immense amount of time and labor which must be spent in inves- tigating the various productions and phenomena of the park, ere we can unravel its past history or fully interpret its present mani- festations. By a most fortunate, though quite accidental dispo- sition of my time, I was-enabled to pass through the most inter- esting portion of these wonders in such a manner as to witness and note a large number of the most striking manifestations in a Comparatively short space of time. And yet when I say that I could have remained for weeks in the neighborhood of a single geyser or spring, watching closely its daily and hourly pulsations and eruptions, studying its history, and marking its effects with- out oie rele more forcibly than my own ignorance, it will
: iin nunciation of Indian words I have adopted, as pei as pos- sible with ordinary type, the admirable and comprehensive system of C. H. Be-
rendt, as explained in his paper entitled “ “Analytical Alphabet for the ieee: and
merican guages,” p 1 Society, New tak te. hin Tt should be noticed that the the “g” in hs word Das the sound of te gta of = ER a Bie he AINE of A in fae Seven jal-
68 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
readily be seen that my time was all too brief for the performaaal of the work as I desired.
Much has already been said concerning the benefits to be derived by science from the setting aside of this tract of land and the pro- tection of its natural features. In fact this was one of the in- — ducements offered for the passage of the bill in both houses of Congress. Dr. Hayden, in speaking of this bill says, ‘I believe it will mark an era in the popular advancement of scientific thought
' not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world. . ... This noble deed may be regarded as a tribute from our leg- islators to science, and the gratitude of the nation and of men of science in all parts of the world is due them for this munificent donation.” * In this paper I propose to offer some suggestions based upon my own experience in the Yellowstone country and adjacent por- tions of the Rocky Mountains, tending to show some of the ben- efits which, in my opinion, may be made to accrue to science by ; the proper use of this grant. The tide of emigration, now fairly started on its westward course, is daily seeking new fields for con- — quest, and with the abundant treasures stored by nature in the S hills and valleys surrounding our park, there can be no question — that this territory is destined to become a scene of great activity — at no very distant day. The Wind River valley, the greater por- — tion of which must be traversed by any highway entering the park — from this direction, is remarkably rich in mineral wealth so eX — posed as to make its working a problem of the simplest nature- In a previous papery I have briefly alluded to this fact in con- — nection with a discussion of the prominent geological features- of 4 this highly interesting section. It is also highly probable that the — a once vigorous gold mining interests of South Pass and vicinity would be revived by the introduction of sufficient capital, while — the markets thus produced would stimulate agriculture in a region —
very favorable for its successful prosecution. Nor can I doubt that the immense deposits of iron, coal, and even oil, will ye be | found to be of the very greatest economic value
In a word, it is my humble opinion that the territories adjacent
to the national park will ere long be among the most thickly se ted Portions of the west, and. that within the next decade or tW0 {Ont Gono ai Wontene som Wyoming, me ‘our Sei. Dec», 1878.
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 69
we may confidently hope to add to our banner another star repre- senting a part of this region. The Montana mining settlements are already a fixed fact, and the inhabitants of the whole area al- luded to, ever alive to their own interests, are rapidly developing the capacities of their soil. Dr. Cyrus Thomas, in his valuable and very interesting report to Dr. Hayden in 1871, says* “ It is only after a careful examination of a vast number of experiments made in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, ete., that I am forced to acknowledge what I before did not believe, viz: that wherever there is soil in these regions, it is rich in the primary ele- ments of fertility.’ Again he remarks,} “As a final illustration, I would refer to the efforts of the Mormons on the Rio Virgin, along the Arizonian border, where I might truly say, amid basaltic hills and drifting sands the desert is being turned into a blooming garden. Perhaps amore desolate looking region than the vicin- ity of St. George could scarcely have been selected ; yet the ap- plication of water shows that here, as elsewhere, the soil is rich in the mineral elements necessary to fertility.”
Much of the area to which I have referred requires no irrigation, while the greater portion of the remainder is very favorably situ- ated for the easy application of water. On the plains at some dis- tance from the mountains this process will be much more difficult on many accounts, and yet I do not doubt that even in such situ- ations it will be attended with success when systematically prac- tised.t é
I have thus seemingly digressed from my subject in order to show that the reservation of 3,600 square miles of that portion _ of this area embracing its most remarkable features was well timed, in consideration of the destructive tendencies of civilization.
The following are extracts from the report of the Committee on the Public Lands, concerning the bill providing for this reser- vation: ‘Persons are now waiting for the spring to open to en- ter in and take possession of these remarkable curiosities ; to make merchandise of these beautiful specimens; to fence in these rare
: * Geological Survey of Wyoming and contiguous territory, 1870, p. 194. Washing-
TI take pleasure te pari the reader to the valuable on of Dr. Thoria, wide have been published with those f irrigation is fally discussed.
70 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
wonders, so as to charge visitors a fee, as is now done at Niagara Falls, for the sight of that which ought to be as free as air or water. —
If this bill fails to become a law this session, the vandals, who are — now waiting to enter into this wonder-land will, in a single season, 2 despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities, which have : required all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to pre- 5 pare.” If such were the danger then, how much greater would it — be when the surrounding country had become thickly populated.
Having thus proven the wisdom of this liberal appropriation, let ‘ us turn our attention to a brief review of the main features of the — park in its present wild condition 4
First, as regards the evidences of waning subterranean heat, so `- abundantly manifested within the limits of this reservation. It is — a remarkable fact that the springs in different localities are widely dissimilar in many respects, and even those in the same locality — often differ as greatly from each other in some of their character- istics. The White Mountain hot springs of Gardiner’s River arè a noteworthy example of this, and did there exist no other reason — for the formation of a park in this region, the fact that here the successive steps in the history of the ancient volcanic action are
I venture to say that nowhere in our country, not even in the tri wonderful cañon of the Colorado, is so much of geological histor
material. The area within which all this is comprised is _ less than ten square miles. Some of the most interesting prod -are so delicate, and many of them are formed in situations $ a culiar, that frequently the work of years might easily be demoli in a very few seconds. It is true that in many cases spoliation may be rectified, but there are numerous formations which have been and are now progressing so slowly, that the work of a lation can tee keep pace with the destructive effects of na erosion. _ _ And yet this riale section furnishes but a small po of the attractions of the park to the scientific observer. Ho o Z: pres mud a fumaroles, solfataras and
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 71
rapids, waterfalls and torrents, deep-cut caions and craggy peaks abound in every direction; lakes, gorges and cataracts, surprise one almost at every turn, and the whole is situated at a point where “the grand Rocky Mountain system culminates in a knot of peaks and ranges enclosing the most remarkable lake basin in the world. From this point radiate the chief mountain ranges, and three of the longest rivers of the Fonten, the Missouri, the Co- lumbia and the Colorado.” *
These being preserved by act of Congress, the earnest student of nature will always find an abundance of fresh matter for re- search in nearly every department of science. Here he will find ready to his hands a laboratory of physics in which he may observe on a large scale the action of the various forces of attraction and repulsion, and new illustrations of the correlation and conservation of energy cannot fail to attract his attention. He will find the laws of crystallization exemplified in forms novel and instructive, and will doubtless witness many new and varied phenomena of heat, light and electricity.+
The chemist will interest himself in problems of analysis and synthesis, in the processes of evaporation, condensation and so- lution, and the chemical chsnges incident thereto. To the, bot- anist and the vegetable physiologist, the field is open for obser- vation and wide experimentation, but there exists, even at this ‘great altitude, a storehouse of facts bearing upon the distribution
* Wonders of ep Piles slang edited by James Richardson. New York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1 tIn the wo tn ac RE of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, 1872, p.1 Dr. A. C. Peale, a of Hayden’s expedition of that year, Seger a roe rset al phe enomen essed, or rather, eeperiane od, by h mself in oompeay
with Gardiner’
age 847 of the same ne volame, Mr. Henry Gannett ies describes this ‘ ents “ A thunder-shower was approaching as we neared the ann of = meuni T wan above the others of the party, -300 when about fifty feet below the summit t ga g y body. At first I felt nothing, but heard a sparks from a friction machine. Immedia beset after, I acs to feel a tingling or pricking anise $ . = ig D the ends of my fingers, which, ached the oe the noise, which had not changed its character, was rar aia my hair
stood completely on end, while the tingling, vas absolutely painful.
_ Taking off my hat a ved it. I started down again, and met the others twenty-five or thirty feet belo the summit. They were affected aitary, bnt in a less di degree. One ears +e
ig Toe ie received quite a severe shock, y which felled him as ith na had pesn We t this poin
: herd an th sete.
«
72 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
a geological standpoint, I can, from my own experience, promise the enthusiastic student of our earth’s history a view at once so complete and so overwhelming as to enchain his whole attention.
be made a really valuable laboratory and conservatory of science at little cost and without detriment to an y of the interests before mentioned. E Momentous questions are now agitating the scientific world, calling for experiment and observation which are daily becoming less possible, owing in a great measure to the obliterating infi ences of modern civilization. Thus it would almost seem that t present difficulties in the way of the solution of many questions, bearing upon the process of natural selection, will soén become insurmountable if some means are not employed to render more practicable the study of animals in a state of nature. I have not space to treat this subject as it deserves, but for and other reasons, I desire to call attention to what appears to one of the most important uses to which the park can be pu viz. : the. preservation from extinction of at least the character
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 73 now in progress in our western wilds, the zodlogical record of to-day must rapidly pass into the domain of the paleontologist. I select for my purpose only the more prominent of the many examples which might be given of animals in the west, which are rapidly becoming extinct through the agency of man—directly or indirectly at the hand of civilized man.
The American bison (Bos Americanus Gmelin), according to Riitimeyer, is identical with Bison priscus of the British palæo- lithic or drift deposits. The European aurochs (Bos bison or Bison Europeus) eannot be specifically separated from the latter, (B. priscus), however, for it is possible to trace the gradations between them. Sir J. Lubbock asserts that “the American form of bison is the more archaic.”* It is, perhaps, somewhat remark- able that an ancient genus containing forms so well suited to supply man with many of the comforts and luxuries of life, should, notwithstanding the better adaptations produced by domestication and careful breeding, still be so well represented by members in a wild state.; The aurochs is now nearly extinct, but some are found in the Carpathian Mountains and the marshy forests of Poland, while it is said to be represented by a few individuals in western Asia, in the neighborhood of Mount Caucasus. Several hundred were for a long time carefully preserved by the emperor of Russia, in the forests of Lithuania, but little is now generally known concerning them, and it is to be feared that they are there nearly or quite exterminated.
The urus (Bos primigenius), according to one historian; existed in Switzerland as late as the sixteenth century.
The American bison formerly ranged over a very large portion of this country east of the Rocky Mountains, extending even to the Atlantic, and southward into Mexico. In 1862, according to Baird, “its main range was between the upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and from northern Texas and New Mexico to Great Martin Lake in latitude 64° N.”§ This was equivalent to an area of 1,500,000 Ten miles. To-day they roam over
+ Prehistoric Timies, 1960, _ | Besides the American bison oe the aurochs there are now existing wild in India,
ee (Bos bubalus Linn), and the arnee (B. arni coats in southern Africa, the
Cape (B. j; a: 3 and i in the Malayan Annies A me weng (B.S
-
among the bones from Kent’s Cavern, and by Dr. Falconer s
74 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
portions of this wide region, but the great railroads seem to — present impassable barriers, which cause them to be distributed | in lots, as it were, between them. I believe it to be a fair estimate 4 to allow them a present range, all told, of not more than 500,000 — square miles, a reduction of one million square miles in twelve years. Granting the possible fact that the reduction in numbers
may be in smaller proportion, and allowing for errors in the cal- culation, there can be little doubt that in the next ten years this race will become extinct, at the present rate of destruction.
The wolverine (Gulo luscus) also represents an ancient type, found in the bone caves of England and Belgium. It is liable to rapid extinction on account of the value of its fur. ;
The Rocky Mountain grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis Ord.) is found by Mr. Buck* to be osteologically identical with remains occurring in ancient British deposits of Post-tertiary age. This species is, perhaps, not yet scarce enough to need protection, as — it is mainly confined to mountainous regions, and the flesh is not greatly in demand. It is a question, however, whether its skin will not be more frequently sought in consequence of the disap- pearance of the bison, or bufialo.
The American beaver (Castor Canadensis), hunted alike for i skin and its anti-civilization propensities, is a distant relativ Castoroides Ohiensis of the American’ Post-tertiary. Its lim as with other animals, have been much curtailed by the advance of civilized man. It-is worthy of preservation for its pec _ habits, which need no description.
The tailless hare, or lagomys, represented in the Rocky Mountain region by the little chief hare (L. princeps Rich), ~ _ genus now confined to the Himalayas, Siberia, and the regions of North America, has been identified by Prof.
| those from the Brixham Cave.” +
repres ntative of the Post-tertiary period. Though, at p!
quite abundant i in this country, it is doubtful whether it can withstand the assaults of the hunter, even with the existe! — parma, laws. The same remark will apply with
ae Ser ES nein 1 307.
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 75
greater force to the black-tail (Cervus Columbianus Rich), and the cotton tailed deer (C. leucurus Douglas), the prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra Americana Ord), and particularly to the mule deer (Cervus macrotis Say) which is occasionally met in this region. I might also add, with equal propriety, the mountain sheep or big horn (Ovis montana Cuvier) and the various game members of the Rodentia, as well as, in fact, all the game birds of this region, including the ducks, geese, grouse, ete.
The mallard (Anas boschas Linn.) is the only bird of antiquity included in this fauna, remains of this species having been taken from the principal lake dwellings of Switzerland.
There are numerous other animals which might be included in this protective scheme, without interfering in the least with any plans for the best improvement of the park, and, what is, perhaps, of as much importance to our practical friends to whose influence we must look for its furtherance, without any serious addition to the burden of expense.* All of these animals are more or less
*The following partial list comprises only the more important of the mammals and birds observed by myself during the past summer came of those already men- tioned), with some few additions from the report of Mr. C. H. Merriam, Zoologist of me Pre ee ie 1n s pe Foss Jan ote expedition of 1872, in order to include a
ALS. Felis concolor Linu.—Cougar: Feber ve : Catamount A ga Gray Woli. -. ĵ Var. griseo a —Wh a occidentalis, Í var AnA Say- -Dnsky y Wolf. y rie
Taridea Americana Wa Waterh—Ame rican Badger,
Ursus Americanus Pala 1 re
-Prai Cynomys GOIN D: oa, er Tailed Br airie ies Aretonms Ravi viventer Bach.—Y eliow-footed Marm Fiber zi ‘hicus Cuvier. vier.—Muskrat Brinicen ¢ pe paint Brandt. cllow-hairea Porcupine: Lepus Townsend endit Bach.—Jackas' ares
‘dit Haye Gray Rabi. Rabbit. (“One very curious fact relating to Tapa
orn dii fs that al ‘he mates hove tenia and eh ah ERRIAM.) I have never me ht Wapiti
TTO i ene Elk; Wap
1 k; hence this meena duties were too pressing to alow of any ornithologieal wor ; Falco e
76 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
liable to rapid extermination by reason of their value to man. None of them need be considered dangerous when unmolested, and, in fact, the same may be said of the whole fauna of this region, without exception.* It is only when wounded, or pressed by the severest hunger that any one with ordinary presence of mind need fear to meet the most powerful of these brutes, entirely unarmed.f
Thirdly, we have here, and may retain without the necessit; protective measures, a large number of invertebrate animals whose habits are little known, and whose structure has scarcely b | investigated, and this remark will apply as well to the lower members of the vertebrate series. There is, perhaps, much reason : to look for a peculiar fauna in this restricted region, both on account of its altitude and its comparatively isolated position, as Í well as the severity of the climate at certain seasons of the yont
Buteo calurus Cassin a nd Black Haw k.
Athene hypogxa Bonap Burrowing Ow : Prairie Owl. Picus Harrisii Aud.— Harris’ Wood nae
Pie alis Baird.—Strip Dtree taod W oonpeckor. Sphyropicus ruber Baird: —Rer-breasted V pe ie Melanerpes erythrocephalus Sw.—Red-h a Woodpe cker. Ceryle alcyon Boie.—Belted Kingfisher.
Tur i orius Linn.—Ro
edus mi p
Sialia arctica Sw.—Rocky Mountain Bluebird Agelaius pheniceus Vieill.—Red-winged Blackbird, Pyranga Ludoviciana Bona Se isiana Tanag
ommo Corvus carnivorus Bart. ET peaniagan Raven Pica Hudsonica Bonap.—M Iduri Carolinensis s earar aa RAS Dove,
- Tetrao riala Say.— Dus a ki Cock of thé Pe i Centrocer ereus urophasianus: aoe e Coc! ock of t ans. Bonasa umbellus, $ Baird —Gra: y Mountain Grouse.
caw Aesar D Boe ian mr ae ed Teal Vettion | reen-winged Teal. cacy = Pelecanus erythrorhyneus Gun —American Pelican.
n _ *I make this statement — bead although I have repea K attacks from pred: country and in Brazil, — the blac
even the
reih peri rvation, by itself, is geg eon vidas: ‘bak bn ave based my fender rs pe "pon upon the e whose sie conmgenti of the habits of these ani ae ws tary ba ai hen : __ $The lowest ‘Point within the Itmite ae a park is probably at at the mouth > sea level, and this is quite e: onal, < Yellowstone Lake has i
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. T
It is interesting to observe, however, that a very large propor- tion of the animals here discovered belong to species of wide range, or, if more local in their distribution, they frequently rep- resent districts far removed. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of this distribution is that we find here living, apparently under quite similar conditions, representatives of peculiarly southern and peculiarly northern types, with some representatives of Pacific types.* This opens to view at once a wide field for observation upon the habits and economy of a large number of the diversified group of insects.
The stridulation of insects, and the various sexual variations and appendages, may all be here studied to the very greatest ad- vantage. I might give from my own notes upon these and other subjects, taken while deeply engaged in arduous duties of another nature, many interesting observations which, in many cases, I was absolutely compelled to make, so abundant was the material every- where present.
Fourthly, there would be much to say upon many subjects connected with the botany of this region, were it not that its elu- cidation has been intrusted to much abler minds than mine. Pre-
7,800 ft., and th ks wh ititude i ly or quite 10,000 ft., while
3 J
te ing the summer months the climate is mild and even cb in the daytime, but in
clear weather the nights are very cold and frosts are not uncommon. This is due to
En eine radiation, which, during cloudy nights is, of c rata much less, and the mperature conseque å.
pe full discussion of this very in teresting subject would be out of place in an f thi
si e that, while this portion of country is hemmed in on al) sides by high snow-clad walls, itis yet the main centre or heart of the aqueous circulation of a vast territory. The river channels of the sources of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado, cut through the otherwise impregnable rim of this basin, affording alike an outlet to the rains and melted snows, sad an inlet to the insects and other animals which may by any means be forced to anter- Thus we may find, at the point from which their sources diverge, a few o! f the lower se leys Of these. rivers. Were there no barriers of wy kind between these points, w
p which had sae
i limated here o: E span eiei along the valleys _
of the ot other rivers. The facts show, however, that the representatives | of distant dis Park ;
The natural conclusion, then, is that such park species are the — of acciden- tally introduced
specimens which were hardy enough or fortunate enough to have com-
plet rier g destroyed in transitu. The great barrier, this case, ked by Di Py l believe to be the great plains which inter- vene between the head tia lleys of th —— EEE RS perhaps,
intestinal cavity of civilized man as one of its habitats, but 1
78 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
mising that Dr. C. C. Parry acted as the botanist of the north- 4 western Wyoming expedition of 1873, I will only add that his ob- — servations prove that the rewards of research in that department are no less promising than in other fields.
Fifthly and lastly, there is one young but active science —mi- croscopy, — which has as yet scarcely entered this field, but which, I firmly believe, will discover within the limits of the Park most valuable treasures. The act of Congress providing for this reser- ‘vation insures the preservation of the greater portion of whatever may be available for this purpose.
Among the most interesting objects for the microscope, will be found the colloidal and filamentous products of the hot springs,” the minute vegetable and animal life of both hot and cold springs, the animal and vegetable parasites, and the numerous crystalline - deposits of the hot springs and geysers.
Yellowstone Lake, in many places near its borders, is so com- pletely filled with a soft greenish substance in small pellets, t that it is impossible to dip a cupful of the water without including hun- — ; dreds of them. They are apparently of vegetable origin, a careful microscopical investigation is needed to determine their ul
hese oR EE = oes ee ee beet
timate structure. Whether this green matter has anything to do
nection.{ The whole saboc ‘of intestinal ae is extremel 3 interesting, and this particular case is, on many accounts, more than ordinarily so. The successive stages in the development 0
this species, and the conditions necessary to its metamorphose’ have never been studied. I can only say that I do not regard Hey
extended observation of its habits may prove the contrary- ‘ It would be a pleasant task to continue my subject much fa y but T feel that I have vnin all that is needed to prove the
*Tuse the terms rr gene RE Ney ges Ne AE Sa x RN PTI PIS the bo springs, concerning the nature of which little is known. £
aya si ci + ih uae t Hayden states (ibid., p. 97) that these parasites are found only in the trout ta above the Upper Falls of Yellowstone River. This observation is, in the me : but I have met them, though rarely, in those of East Fork, which leads me T that they may occur in