caves and other localities in the Dordogne, which I had explored in common with my much regretted colleague, the late Mr. Henry Christy, I accompanied them in this excursion. The excavations at La Madelaine were then being continued, and had already furnished a number of those animal figures engraved on bone and reindeer horn, of which some were placed last year under the eyes of the Academy. At the time of our arrival, the workmen had just discovered five cracked fragments of a rather thick plate of ivory, which must have been formerly broken off from a tolerably large elephant's tusk. After joining these bits together by the marks furnished by the roughnesses of the fracture, I showed to Dr. Falconer several rather deep lines or engravings which, when brought together, seemed to indicate animal forms. The practised eye of the celebrated palæontologist who has best studied the Proboscidians, recognized directly the head of an elephant. He also identified several other parts of the body, particularly about the neck, a bundle of descending lines reminding us of the long-haired mane characteristic of the Mammoth, or elephant of the glacial epoch.* It is known that this specific peculiarity, referring to the sub-arctic habitat of an animal of this species, was verified in 1799 by Mr. Adams, of the Academy of St. Petersburg, by means of the body of one of these elephants (E. primigenius), which was embedded, flesh, bones, and all, in the ice near the mouth of the Lena. A tuft of the long hair of the Mammoth may be seen in the Gallery of Geology of the Museum.

"According to the rule which we have laid down, I did not wish to publish this discovery before it was confirmed by a second analogical observation, I therefore contented myself with exhibiting the speci men to some of the most competent judges. Among these I may mention MM. de Quatrefages, Desnoyers, de Longpérier, all of whom have, like yourself, examined it with the most scrupulous attention; also Mr. A. W. Franks, Director of the London Society of Antiquaries, who was good enough to take the trouble of following out upon the model, and tracing with a black pencil the most pronounced engravings, and those most characteristic of the forms to be distinguished. It is, therefore, the opinion of these eminent savants and that of Mr. Falconer, together with your own, which I shall lay with mine, before the Academy. For the rest, this new fact adds

* In the model, there is in the lines descending from the top of the head, a gap or interruption corresponding to a transverse breakage, filled up in the original by

cement.

nothing to the already formed convictions on the co-existence of man with the fossil elephant (E. primigenius), and the other great Herbivora or Carnivora considered by geologists as having lived during the first phases of the quaternary period. The truth of this retrospective evidence is now deducible from so great a number of corresponding observations, and from material facts of so manifest a signification, that even minds the least prepared to admit it, no longer hesitate to accept it in all its reality, from the moment that they will take the trouble to see for themselves and afterwards to judge conscientiously.

"Permit me, Sir, to profit by this occasion, in order to beg you to announce to the Academy two discoveries of a more actual bearing upon my studies on the geographical distribution of the quaternary Mammifers. First, the observation of a Marmot, of a species new, or at any rate different from that of the Alps, the remains of which have been found in a Dordogne cave anciently inhabited by man.

"The other, and more important fact, consists in the finding in Périgord, at another place of human abode of great antiquity, a certain number of bones of the Ovibos moschatus, or Musk Ox, in a fragmentary condition analogous to that of other bones of the animals upon which the primitive inhabitants lived. These bones of the musk ox were found associated with the remains of the great bear, the cave lion (Felis spelaa), the reindeer, the aurochs, the horse, &c., and in the midst of the relics of human industry; thus showing the persistence of a glacial epoch up to the time when man established himself in this European region of which the climate is now so temperate. We know in fact that the musk ox, now banished to North America, never comes lower than 60 deg. ; during the first part of the quaternary period, then, this animal existed 15 deg. further south. It is worthy of remark that M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards arrives at similar conclusions, from the studies he has made of fossil birds from the caves and other human stations in Périgord."*

M. le Marquis de Vibraye has since recorded a similar discovery made at l'Augerie in the Dordogne.

See proceedings of the Société Philomathique, meeting of the 8th July reported in "L'Institut", number 3, August, 1856.

XLVI.-THE TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE ANCIENTS.

ESSAY ON THE TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE ANCIENTS, BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF FOUR LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, intended to be supplementary to those on Roman Husbandry, already published by C. Daubeny, M.D. F.R.S., Professor of Botany and Rural Economy in the University of Oxford. Oxford and London. 1865. Svo.

THIS is a most valuable contribution to botanical Archeology, not so much perhaps from any number of new facts which it establishes, as from the bringing together in a concise methodical form, all that is known on the subject, and by the sifting the evidences upon which we have formed our conclusions, thus showing how meagre these evidences are, and how very few of the ancient Greek and Roman names of trees and shrubs have been, or can be identified with the species they represent. Linnæus, and other botanists of the last and previous centuries, followed by the majority of lexicographers, had unhesitatingly applied the ancient names to particular species, upon grounds which rarely exceeded vague conjecture, and these identifications, like the common ones of Biblical floras, had been the more generally accepted by writers of Central and Northern Europe, in consequence of the very little knowledge we had of the actual vegetation of the countries where the ancient authors lived and wrote. When, however, the pacification of Europe in the early part of the present century, had opened the classical soil of the Mediterranean regions to the exploration of naturalists, the glaring misapplications of ancient names, did not fail to come to light, and several elaborate works, both German and French enumerated by Dr. Daubeny, besides some Italian ones, were devoted to the correction of these errors, and to the inquiry as to what were really the plants known to, and named by the ancients. At an earlier period also, the late Dr. Sibthorp had laid up a rich store of information on the subject, the more valuable as much of it had been collected on the spot, during his celebrated travels in Greece. Of all these materials Dr. Daubeny has made very good use, and he has also availed himself of the old commentaries on Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and of some curious illustrations appended to old MSS. in the Vienna library. Applying to the whole his own critical acumen and knowledge, both of classical literature and natural science, he has produced a compi

lation, which, as we perfectly agree with him, "will be found to embrace an identification of a greater number of Greek and Roman plants than is contained in any former English publication," and we may add, as far as they go, much more to be relied upon. We believe, at the same time, that every other inquirer pursuing the subject with the same means at his disposal, and the same anxiety to get at the truth, must inevitably come to the same conclusion, that, "in consequence of the vagueness of the descriptions of classical writers, and the loose manner in which they noted the characters of the plants that came under their observation," it is scarcely possible, "except in the case of a few conspicuous and important species, to do more than point out with some degree of probability, the natural family, or at most, the genus to which the classical designation appeared intended to apply." The result of Dr. Daubeny's critical notes is summed up in a catalogue of about 140 genera, and nearly 100 species, of Greek and Italian trees and shrubs, referred with more or less probability to their classical appellations.

We join with Dr. Daubeny in deploring the servile manner in which ancient writers were in the habit of copying from each other the facts they gave, mixed up with old fables, instead of observing for themselves, but as some excuse we may allude to the difficulty of avoiding it, even in modern days, in all general works which must include more or less of compilation. A striking instance may be pointed out even in the work before us, where pp. 24 and 35, Dr. Daubeny has inadvertently given further currency to some of the many absurd fables put forth in a recent article on Conifers, in the "Edinburgh Review," and exposed by Dr. A. Gray, in "Silliman's Journal." Bernard de Jussieu did not bring a seedling of the Cedar from the Holy Land, nor did he stint himself of water to keep his plant alive. The Cedar which he brought without any romantic difficulties from England in his hat, a very common receptacle for a travelling botanist's plants, and planted in 1734, still stands in its original site, in the Jardin des Plantes, and no railway comes near it.

XLVII.-THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SPHÆRIACEÆ.

BEITRAGE ZUR ANATOMIE UND PHYSIOLOGIE DER SPHERIACEEN, von August Sollmann. Botanische Zeitung, August 26, 1864. Vol. XXII. p. 265 and 271.

UEBER DIE ENTWICKELUNG DER FRUCTIFICATIONSORGANE VON Nectria, von Alexis Janowitsch. Bot. Zeit. May 12, 1865. Vol. XXIII. p. 149.

In a report contained in a former number of this Review, (Jan. 1865), on the sexuality of the lower Cryptogamia, we noticed shortly the conclusions drawn by M. Sollmann, from the observations detailed by him in the paper cited above. The subject has since been treated by Professor Janowitsch, in the Journal above mentioned, and as his opinions are directly at variance with those of M. Sollmann, we have thought it worth while to state the contents of M. Sollmann's paper more in detail, and to give the contradictory views of M. Janowitsch, by way of supplement to our former report.

M. Sollmann states, that he has observed the process of fructification in four species of Nectria; viz. N. Lamyi De Not., N. cucurbitula Tod, N. coccinea P., and N. cylindrospora Sollm, and perhaps in a fifth, N. inaurata B. and Br. The phenomena being the same in all, he considers it necessary only to go into details with regard to the first species.

In this the stroma is formed by the growing together of the terminal threads of the mycelium, and the perithecia are produced at the surface of the stroma. The walls of the perithecia consist of three different layers, called by the author the outermost layer (äusserste Schicht), the transition layer (Uebergang's-schicht), and the fertile layer (Fruktifications-schicht). In observing the process of fructification, it is necessary, in order to avoid deception, to select for examination, only those perithecia which have not opened. Perithecia of different ages, although agreeing externally in appearance, exhibit essential differences in the fructifying layer, and three forms are particularly noticeable.

A. The form with asci. This (which is the form of the oldest perithecia), exhibits numerous asci attached to the wall of the perithecium, from its base to some distance upwards. The upper part of the perithecium produces pendant threads, and similar threads are visible as paraphyses in the lower portion. The youngest asci are small, almost cylindrical, and filled with a transparent fluid plasma. More advanced asci are club-shaped, and contain a vast number of