Abstract
PHILADELPHIA
Academy of Natural Sciences.—Session 1875–6.—Prof. Cope's contributions to palaeontology and philosophic biology have been numerous and important. In successive communications he has given accounts of the Eocene mammals of the Rocky Mountains, possessing characters which at first led to their being assigned to the Carnivore. Prof. Cope has demonstrated their insectivorous affinities, but finds that the definition of existing insectivora is insufficient to include them. Other forms supposed at first to be of lemurine affinities are found to be yet more generalised, and to range with the previously mentioned animals. He proposes the name Bunotheria for the order, with sub-orders Creodonta, Mesodonta, Insectivora, Tillodonta, and Tæniodonta (Proc. 1876, p. 88). Prof. Cope has also endeavoured to equate the North American Eocene to the European zones. The Bridger formation of S. W. Wyoming he calls Middle Eocene, characterised by Palæosyops, Tillodonta, and Dinocerata; and the Wahsatch group in N.E, New Mexico and S. W. Wyoming is assigned to the Lower Eocene, with Coryphodon, Tæniodonta, Phenacodus, and Diatryma.—Mr. Robert Ridgway contributed (Proc, 1875, p. 470) a valuable monograph on the North American hawks of the genus Micrastur. An examination of the perplexingly-various plumage shows that there is no appreciable sexual difference; there are two well-marked growth-stages with plumage distinctions; certain species are notably dimorphous, some deeply rufescent, others clear plumbeous, without reference to age, sex, or season.—Other contributions to zoology include the establishment of a new genus of Procyonidss from Costa Rica, by Mr. J. A. Allen; observations on the habits of manatees kept in confinement in the Zoological Garden at Philadelphia, by Dr. H. C. Chapman; Dr. Wilder on fishes' brains, and Prof. Leidy on Rhizopods, and Mr. H. K. Morrison on American Noctuida;.—Dr. Isaac Lea has continued his researches on the microscopic structure of gems, and has found that in addition to the internal crystalline forms which they possess, there are in most gems, cavities, often tens of thousands in number.—Mr. George Hay, in his chemical contributions gives an account of the decomposition of stannous chloride vapour in a Geissler's tube; and of the solubility of tin, arsenic, and antimony in concentrated nitric acid at 36° F., when the oxidation is in the ratio of their several volatilities.—Prof. Persifor Frazer and Dr. Kcenig have been the principal contributors in geology and mineralogy.—Mr. Thomas Meehan among several botanical notices has given accounts of interesting hybrids, of certain insectivorous plants, and of a certain maple tree which flourished although all its leaves became reversed, so as to expose its stomata to direct sunlight. The propagation of Tillandsia usneoides, the epiphytic, not parasitic Florida or Spanish moss was described as being principally by means of small branches scattered during storms or by other means, but very rarely by seeds.—An interesting observation was made on the large number of cases in which double Chinese peaches of the season 1875 bore two or three fruits on each flower; thus showing their solidarity with the polycarpellary Rosacese.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 14, 383–384 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014383a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014383a0