also. And what I consider a new genus of Bacillariaceae, which I have called Ancile radiata. It is free and found rarely in the salt water in Jamaica Bay, Rockaway and at Foleys, and South Beach, Staten Island. But of this I shall speak hereafter. Mr. W. A. Terry says he has found broken fragments of Brunia but this I myself have not seen, although common in a deposit which I will also describe hereafter taken at fifteen feet from the surface at Hoboken, N. J, I, another day, visited Coney Island, N. Y., and searched for infusorial earth and this time was fortunate enough to find it at Sheephead Bay, which is a village just on the Long Island side of Coney Island Creek. It was a grayish colored clay, one foot underneath the sand taken at low water, about eight feet from the surface of the soil. At Canarsie Landing, which is on Jamaica Bay between Coney Island and Auvergne, I did not find the infusorial earth, but I was there a very short time. I did find glacial phenomena and indication of the elevation of the coast, but of those I shall not speak now as they are not microscopical. But the finding of Bacillariaceae in the infusorial earth, as belonging to the Upper Neocene period, is thus a fact, and the date of so finding is worthy of record. Perhaps they will be found more inland on Long Island hereafter. I have searched for them as far inland as the city of Jamaica, but without result.

This layer is in the Upper Neocene, or perhaps the Plistocene, but the placing of it definitely is extremely difficult if not impossible at present, for on describing a fossil marine Diatomaceous deposit from St. Augustine, Florida, Mr. Charles S. Boyer says (Bulletin of the Torry Botanical Club, April, 1895, Vol. 22, No. 4, page 172) that it, the St. Augustine deposit, "overlies an Eocene deposit and is beneath the Plistocene" and that the Barbadoes deposit, which corresponds partially with it, "is now claimed to be Pliocene." In fact, as I have already pointed out, the marine fossil layers of Bacillariaceæ, be it from Mors, Denmark; Simbirsk, Russia; Sentz Peter, Austria; Oran, Algiers; Moron, Spain; Argentina; Payta, Peru; New York to Virginia, California and New Zealand, including the Nicobar Islands, are Neocene, be that Miocene or Pliocene.

-ARTHUR M. EDWARDS, M. D., Newark, N. J.

The succession of Glacial changes.--Evidence has been accumulating during the last few years in favor of the periodicity of glacial action. Mr. Geikie recognized in Europe six distinct glacial epochs separated by genial periods, making in all eleven glacial and interglacial stages. For convenience he gives each of these horizons a separate name. The climax of glaciation was reached in the third

stage, that is, the second glacial epoch, after which the cold stage diminished continuously in importance. In like manner, the earliest interglacial epoch seems to have been the most genial, each successive epoch approximating more and more closely to existing conditions.

The American glacial deposits have been classified by Mr. Chamberlin, and an attempt made to correlate them with those of Europe. The following table shows the tentative correlation.

GLACIAL AND INTERGLACIAL STAGES.

EUROPEAN.
XI. Upper Tubarian-Sixth Glacial Period.
X. Upper Forestian Fifth Interglacial Period.
IX. Lower Turbarian Fifth Glacial Epoch.
VIII. Lower Forestian-Fourth Interglacial Epoch.
VII. Mecklenburgian-Fourth Glacial Epoch.
VI. Neudeckian-Third Interglacial Epoch.
V. Polandian-Third Glacial Epoch.
IV. Helvetian-Second Interglacial Epoch
III. Saxonian Second Glacial Epoch.
II. Norfolkian-First Interglacial Epoch.
I. Scanian First Glacial Epoch.

AMERICAN.

Wisconsin.
Toronto.
Iowan.
Aftonian.

Kansas Formation.

The complex series subsequent to the Wisconsin formation have not been sufficiently investigated to permit even a tentative correlation, or indeed, to even designate the specific formations. This statement is equally applicable to the formations deposited during the advancing stages of the glacial period in America. (Journ. Geol., Vol. III, 1895.)

Geologic News.-PALEOZOIC.-Haworth proposes to divide the Coal Measures of Kansas into Upper and Lower, the division to be at the top of the Pleasonton shales, which is at the bottom of the Erie limestone. The division is based principally on paleontological evidence. In the author's study of the Kansas Coal Measures he finds that the shales are of submarine origin, while the entire formation appears to have been laid down during a period of gentle oscillations, with the greatest movement to the west, and the least to the east. (Kan. Univ. Quar., Vol. III, 1895.)

An Orthoceras shell of gigantic proportions has been found in the Lower Coal Measures of Iowa, about forty miles from Des Moines. This specimen is three inches in diameter and as it is of the same very slender as the associated forms, it could not have been less than six feet in length, and probably was even longer. The species is O. fauslerensis. (Science, Jan., 1896.)

MESOZOIC.-In examining the microscopic structure of the flint nodules found in the Lower Cretaceous of Texas near Austin, Mr. J. A. Merrill found traces of the following organisms: Foraminifera, sponges, molluscs represented by the nacreous tissue of the shells, and fishes represented by their scales. The fact that the delicate spines of the sponge spicules, even to the most minute barb are perfectly preserved, showing no trace of having been subjected to mechanical movement, leads to the conclusion, that these flints result from the continuous growth of sponges in situ. Mr. Merrill's study then confirms to this extent the view taken by Prof. Sollas in his study of the nodules of the English flint. (Bull. Harvard, Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. XXVIII, 1895.)

CENOZOIC.-Mr. G. H. Ashley's studies of the Coast Range Mts. of California lead him to the conclusion that the east and west ranges of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties were elevated at about the end of the Miocene, while the ranges to the north with a uniform strike of northwest and southeast were elevated at or near the end of the Pliocene. (Geol. Mag., Vol. III, 1895.)

Mr. A. M. Edwards reports Cenozoic clay containing marine forms of diatomaces from Rockaway, Long Island. The clay deposit is dark green or grey in color, and is capped by a fresh water deposit of white clay. (Observer, Dec., 1895.)

Prof. H. L. Fairchild enumerates eight reasons for regarding the Pinnacles Hills, near Rochester, N. Y. as a kame series forming a part of a frontal moraine. This is contrary to the views of Upham who considers that they were deposited "in the ice-walled channel of a stream of water," "open to the sky." (Amer. Geol., Vol. XVI, 1895.)

BOTANY.

A recent paper on the relation between the Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes.—In the October number of the Revue Mycologique under the heading " A Fungus simultaneously an Ascomycete and Basidiomycete" appears a résumé by R. Ferry of a portion of 1 Edited by Prof. C. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. 2 Read before the Botanical Seminar of the University of Nebraska, Dec. 21,

a paper published in Mémoires couronnés de l'Académie de Belgique, 1894 by Ch. Bommer. I have not seen the original paper, but as Ferry gives quite a lengthy account of it and quotes the most essential parts there seems to be sufficient basis for some remarks.

The fungi under consideration are Mylitta australis Berk. and Polyporus mylittæ Cooke and Massee. The former is a large irregularly spherical hypogeous fungous growth found in Australia and Van Diemans' Land and called by the inhabitants "native bread." It was first described by Berkeley in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 1839 and referred to Mylitta, a doubtful genus established by Fries upon what is now known to be a gall. Berkeley says he found no spores but noticed that the ends of some of the hyphae were swollen. No one seems to have examined the fungus for some time after Berkeley described it. According to Ferry, Tulasne regarded it as a mycelial formation analagous to Pietra fungifera of Battara and older writers, which is now known to be the sclerotium stage of Polyporus tuberaster Fr. Later Cooke and Massee3 referring to the plant incidentally call it a sclerotium and Saccardo' who examined it recently, says he observed spores (?) which were globose, smooth, hyaline, plainly nucleate and 14-15μ. in diameter. Such in brief was the knowledge of the plant before the appearance of the paper under discussion.

The latter plant Polyporus mylittæ C. & M. (fig. 1) was first described in Grevillea 1.c. It is a short stipitate plant with a tough pulvinate pileus about 10 cm. broad, found growing on Mylitta australis in southern Australia. The authors say in a note; "A most interesting production, undoubtedly the ultimate development of the sclerotium long known as Mylitta australis Berk."

A year later Saccardo (1. c.) published a slightly different form of the same fungus under the same name. After the description he adds: "Growing on Mylitta australis from which it appears to originate. The texture of the Polyporus and of Mylitta are about the same. They are formed of intertwining filaments with frequent globose swellings constituting a soft or suberose white mass. It is very probable, therefore that Mylitta is the sclerotium form of the Polyporus and probably bears the same relation to the Polyporus that Ceriomyces bears to Polyporus biennis (Bull.) Fr."

Referring now to Bommer's paper we shall give the essential parts of Ferry's summary and translate the important parts of the quotations from the author. Ferry first gives an account of Mylitta

australis as observed by Bommer.

'Cooke and Massee. Grev., 21:37. Dec., 1892.

'Saccardo. Hedw., 32: 56. March and April, 1893.

Specimens are compact, very hard and covered with a superficial black crust. In full grown plants the interior is divided into a number of irregular cavities. The walls of these cavities are formed of a white tissue which under the microscope is seen to consist of thick-walled hyphae which are stained by Bismark brown (fig. 2 b.). These hyphæ are from 4-8. in diameter. The cavities soon become filled with a gelatinous substance of a horny consistency in which some thin, hyaline, flexuose hyphæ are found buried. These are not colored by Bismark brown. Some of these hyphae have ovoid swellings 5-8p. long near their ends which contain 1, 2 or 3 ovoid bodies with very thin walls. Each body contains a kind of nucleus. Later these swellings (fig. 2 a.), especially those near the periphery of the gelatinous mass increase in size and contain only one ovoid body. This is brown, verrucose, very refringent, presenting all the characters of a spore and is regarded as such by Bommer. Since he finds what he considers asci and spores he refers Mylitta australis to the Tuberaceæ. He describes the

mature asci and spores as follows: "The asci (fig. 3) are analagous to those of Tuber melanosporum, being ovoid or spherical and 40-50. in their greatest diameter. The membrane is thin and encloses a single