to account for the existence of ice during the period of the productive Coal-measures. A part of the vegetation of the coal period was allied more or less closely to the modern ferns, but these, of very large size are found chiefly in the tropics. Coal is, however, found in arctic regions. This fact has been supposed to indicate a warm climate during the coal period. There are two equally important elements in all calculations respecting the origin of coal. The first is a sufliciently warm atmosphere to secure luxuriant and abundant vegetation; the second, a climate sufficiently cool to prevent such decay of the vegetable matter as would forbid any accumulation. There is little or no accumulation of vegetable matter in the hot, damp climate of the tropics, the decay counterbalancing the growth. On the other hand, the peat vegetation accumulates in wet bogs in comparatively cold climates. Whether there may have been, after the submergence of the Zaleski coal, at some point more or less remote, a shore on which ice may have been formed, which floated the bowlder in question, or it was brought down by river ice from some higher and colder part of the old continent which was skirted by the coal producing lowlands, it is impossible to say.

Sir Charles Lyell in his "Students' Elements of Geology," published in 1871, gives the following paragraph on the climate of the coal period: As to the climate of the coal, the ferns and the coniferæ are, perhaps, the two classes of plants which may be most relied upon as leading to safe conclusions, as the genera are nearly allied to living types. All botanists admit that the abundance of ferns implies a moist atmosphere. But the coniferæ, says Hooker, are of a more doubtful import, as they are found in hot and dry and in cold and dry climates, in hot and moist and in cold and moist regions. In New Zealand the coniferæ attain their maximum in numbers constituting 1-62 part of all the flowering plants; whereas, in a wide district around the Cape of Good Hope they do not form 1-1600 of the phenogamic flora. Besides the conifers, many species of ferns flourish in New Zealand, some of them arborescent, together with many lycopodiums, so that a forest in that country may make a nearer approach to the Carboniferous vegetation than any other now existing on the globe.""

The other reports will also commend themselves to geologists, and meanwhile we trust no expense will be spared by the State in causing the final report to be published and extensively circulated.

THE NOXIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OF MISSOURI.*— Though by the time this review appears we shall have a fourth report from Mr. Riley, a notice of some of the good things in the present re

*Third Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial and other Insects of the State of Missouri, etc. By Charles V. Riley, State Entomologist. 1871. 8vo, pp. 182, with 73 cuts. Price $1.00.

port will perhaps be "better late than never." A description of the very ingenious machines for jarring trees to rid them of the Plum Curculio will be in

teresting to fruit growers; while two Ichneumon parasites of this insect are described and figured. The Apple Curculio (Anthonomus 4-gibbus) which is doing considerable damage in Southern Illinois and some

α

Fig. 93.

Strawberry Crown-borer.

parts of Missouri is described fully and well figured, as well as the

Fig. 94.

Plum Gouger (A. prunicida). Another weevil injures the strawberry plant. It is the Analcis fragaria of Riley (Fig. 93, a, larva; b and c, adult beetle). The egg is probably laid in the crown; the young larva boring downwards into the pith and root, when it attains its full size,

and in the autumn the plants break off. The Pea and Bean wee

vils are noticed at length.

Among the insects in

juring the grape are noticed several moths; among them the PyraFig. 97. midal

a

Fig. 95.

Larva of Amphipyra.

Fig. 96.

Grapevine Worm (Amphipyra pyramidoides,
Fig. 94; 95, larva), which has not before been
known to feed on the vine. It
will not probably prove very
troublesome. The habits of
the Spotted Pelidnota and
Grapevine Flea Beetle are des-
cribed and figured in an excel-

lent manner. We are also Grape Colaspis.

made acquainted with the habits of a rather Larva of Grape Colaspis. formidable beetle, clay yellow in color, the Colaspis flarida (Fig. 96; 97, larva) of which the early stages are for the first time described.

A valuable notice of the Grape-leaf Gall-louse (Phylloxera vitifolia) next follows, and we only hope that this fearful scourge in Europe will not abound here, though for several years it has been more or less injurious. It is thought by Mr. Riley, who has

studied it in France, to be the same species as the P. vastatrix of Europe.

The account of the Tent Caterpillars will be found to be interesting, and several other destructive caterpillars are noticed at greater or less length.

As a sample of the illustrations we introduce the above cuts of the White Lined Morning Sphinx (Deilephila lineata, Fig. 98) and its larva (Fig. 99). Riley alludes to the striking amount of larval variation in this species, having found on the same plant very light caterpillars, with black ones with a yellow dorsal line

and two rows of small yellow spots along the side. It is often attacked by Tachina flies.

The concluding chapter on "Two of our Common Butterflies (Danais archippus and Limenitis disippus); their natural history, with some general remarks on Transformation and Protective Imitation as illustrated by them," will interest all naturalists, especially those who have studied cases of mimicry.

POND LIFE.*-There is not much to be said about this exquisite little book; the best thing to do about it is to read it. As its title states, it is a new edition of a familiar work by the present able Secretary of the "Royal Microscopical Society." Its authorship would be a sufficient guarantee of its scientific accuracy, but not of its general excellence in other respects; for few men, whether eminent or not, could prepare a volume containing so much to commend and so little to regret.

With the exception of an initial chapter devoted to the apparatus employed, the book is a Natural History work, describing and commenting upon the minute living forms which abound in the ponds near London. Usually a chapter is given to the work of each month in the year; and an interesting discussion of relations closes the list. The distribution of work through the various months would be more applicable to our Southern than to our Northern states, but the chief interest of the book is entirely independent of local considerations.

Written in a lively and dashing style, though without a touch of sensationism or vulgarity, illustrated with neat and life-like wood cuts and dainty colored prints, and presented by the publishers in an attractive form, this little gem of a book would be of as much interest to a poet or a philosopher as to a naturalist. We advise every intelligent reader, whether scientific or not, to buy the volume, and read it, and having read it to join with us in wishing that the author's next edition, or next work, may be as good if not as small. — R. H. W.

DEEP SEA CORALS. †- This elaborate treatise is on the deepsea corals collected during the recent expeditions made for the

*Marvels of Pond Life. By Henry J. Slack, F. G. S. Second edition. London: Groombridge & Sons, 1871.

+ Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy. No. iv. Deep Sea Corals. By L. F. de Pourtalès. Cambridge, 1871, large 8vo, with a map and 8 lithographic plates.

exploration of the Gulf Stream, by the U. S. Coast Survey. The work contains much of general geological and zoological interest from the reviews of our present knowledge of the constitution of the sea bottom on the Atlantic coast of the United States, the results of which have already been presented to our readers.

Perhaps the most interesting of the corals figured is the Haplophyllia paradoxa dredged off Bahia Honda, at the enormous depth (for corals) of 324 fathoms. This remarkable form is referred by Count Pourtalès to the Rugose Corals, which have hitherto only been found in strata below the Coal measures, and therefore of great geological antiquity. The nearest allied form is Calophyllum profundum, found fossil in the Dyas. This coral is of such interest that we copy the figures. The brief remarks on

Fig. 100.

A Deep Sea Coral (Haplophyllia).

the geographical and bathymetrical distribution of the corals possess much interest. The reef building species do not seem to extend to any considerable depth. "The families having apparently the greatest range in depth, are the Oculinidæ, the Stylasteridæ, and the Melleporida. Simple corals, which form such a large proportion of the deep sea fauna, are not represented at all in the Floridian reef fauna; some species are described from the West Indies, but without indications of depth."

The author gives a list of dead corals, which have been swept north of their original habitat by the Gulf Stream. "The indications are that a current sweeps over the bottom in a direction from south to north; in other words, the Gulf Stream extends to the bottom, at least, as far north as the highest latitude mentioned, and is not underlaid by a cold Arctic current running in an opposite direction, as has sometimes been assumed to account for the low temperature at the bottom." The work concludes with notices of the corals constituting the Florida reef. The illustrations are abundant and excellent.