plants sent to New York thirty-five years ago, which arrived as fresh and healthy as when they left London; and the transmission was quite as successful between England and Australia, when the voyage, confined to sailing ships, was far longer than now. So useful has this contrivance proved to be in this respect, that the Director of Kew Gardens "feels safe in saying that a large proportion of the most valuable economic and other tropical plants now cultivated in England would, but for these cases, not yet have been introduced." The earliest published account of the Wardian case was given by Mr. Ward in the form of a letter to his near friend, the late Sir William Hooker, and was printed in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine for May, 1836. His volume, "On the Growth of Plants in closely-glazed Cases" appeared in the year 1842, and a second edition, considerably enlarged and suitably illustrated, was published a few years later. These were, we believe, Mr. Ward's only scientific publications, excepting reports of communications to various societies with which he was connected, several of them relating to a subject near to his heart, the improvement of the dwellings of the poor in England, and the amelioration in other respects, of their hard condition. A most enthusiastic and in some departments a learned botanist, his contributions to his favorite avocation were not in the form of authorship, to which he seemed averse: a man "given to hospitality" indeed, but as unpretending as it was cordial and unlimited. The coming generation will hardly appreciate the extent of the influence he exerted and the strength of the attachment he inspired so widely among the cultivators of natural science, nor understand, perhaps, how it could be said of him, and without exaggeration, that "for very many years his hospitable house, first in Wellclose Square, and latterly at Clapham Rise, was the most frequented metropolitan resort of naturalists from all quarters of the globe of any since Sir Joseph Banks' day." But while any survive of those who have had the privilege of knowing him personally, or in the friendly correspondence he delighted in, Mr. Ward will be remembered as "one of the gentlest, kindest, and purest," and in the highest sense one of the best of men.

EDWARD PEPPIG, Professor of Zoology in the University of Leipsic, died on the 4th of September, at the age of 70 years. His name is familiar to botanists on account of the collections he made in Cuba, Chili, Peru, and the upper part of the Amazon; which were in part published in Poppig and Endlicher's Nova Genera et Species Plantarum, etc. Soon after his return from his long journey of exploration, he took the chair of zoology at Leipsic, and consequently abandoned botany.

We hear of the decease of Dr. SCHNITZLEIN in Germany, and of the venerable FRANÇOIS DELESSERT, the head of the house of Delessert since the death of his brother Benjamin, the life-long friend of DeCandolle, and the possessor of the botanical museum and rich library so well known to and so freely at the service of botanists.

A. G.

To these names must be added that of HORACE MANN, assistant in the "Gray Herbarium" at Cambridge. When Dr. Gray sailed for Europe, in September last, Mr. Mann was in failing health, and probably the above necrological notices were written by Dr. Gray about the time of his assistant's death, which took place Nov. 11. Mr. Mann's botanical fame will rest chiefly upon the large collections which he made in the Sandwich Islands in connection with Mr. W. T. Brigham, and upon the subsequent "Enumeration of Hawaiian Plants" published in the Proceedings of the American Acad. of Arts and Sciences, for Sept. 11, 1866.

In botany itself his name is happily commemorated by the striking genus Hesperomannia (Gray), a Mutisiaceous Composite which he discovered in the little island of Lanai of the Hawaiian group.

D. C. E.

2. Index to the Native and Scientific names of Indian and other Eastern Economic Plants and Objects, originally prepared under the authority of the Secretary of State for India, by J. FORBES WATSON, M.D., etc., etc. London: Trübner & Co. 1868. -A large, beautifully printed volume, of 637 oblong 4to pages, in double columns, the native names belonging to 30 oriental and several European languages, followed by the recognized scientific name, embodying the result of much erudition and immense labor. It will be useful to botanists on the one hand, to philologists on the other, and not less so to commercial men who have occasion to seek for information concerning Indian and other eastern plants and vegetable products, information otherwise oftentimes very difficult to find.

A. G.

3. Synopsis Filicum; or a Synopsis of all known Ferns, including the Osmundaceæ, Schizoacea, Marattiacea and Ophioglossaceae (chiefly derived from the Kew Herbarium). Accompanied by figures representing the essential characters of each genus; by the late Sir WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER, K.H., D.C.L., F.R.S., A.S., and L.S., Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, and JOHN GILBERT BAKER, F.L.S., Assistant Curator of the Kew Herbarium. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1865-1868. 8vo, pp. 482, tt. 9.With the concluding part of the "Species Filicum" its author announced that he was preparing, should life and health be spared to accomplish it, this Synopsis, to be a supplementary volume to the work then just completed, reviewing all the recognized sections, genera and species, giving them brief characters, with general habitats, and with references for synonyms, more full localities, figures, etc., to the pages of the "Species," adding all needful corrections and recently discovered species, and finally embracing the sub-orders named above. The full accomplishment of this purpose he was not permitted to see, for "whilst the sheet which terminates at page 48 was passing through the press, Sir W. Hooker's long career of botanical authorship was somewhat unexpectedly terminated by his death." The manuscript notes already prepared and the annotated copy of the "Species Filicum" were entrusted by Dr. Hooker to Mr. J. G. Baker, an ardent Botanist, already

well known for his volume on the "Botany, Geology, Climate, and Physical Geography of North Yorkshire," and for his "Supplement to Baines' Flora of Yorkshire," with the request that the Synopsis should be carried out to its completion in strict accordance with the original plan.

Mr. Baker has performed his task faithfully and well, and with commendable diligence, for he has thoroughly studied the Ferns, has made himself familiar with the plan of the work already begun, and has brought it to a well-ordered conclusion, all within two years after the death of his venerable predecessor in pteridological science. This book is now the only one which gives a complete view of all known Ferns, and although almost any other writer on the subject would have admitted a considerably larger number of species, it will be to all fern-lovers a most useful work, and in accordance with its classification and nomenclature most collections of Ferns will conveniently be arranged. The number of species admitted and described is 2235. But very many names of doubt fully distinct or imperfectly known species are given, with a few words of diagnosis, along with the recognized species with which they are most closely allied. Of the genera not reached in the "Species Filicum" it may be well to note in this place that Osmunda has 6 admitted species, Todea has 4, Schizoea 6, Aneimia, or as it is here written with Swartz' own mistaken orthography, Anemia, 26, Mohria 1, Trochopteris 1, Lygodium 16, Angiopteris 1, Marattia 7, Danca 11, Kaulfussia 1, Ophioglossum 9, six of which it is quite possible that Sir W. J. Hooker would have united with 0. vulgatum, Helminthostachys 1, and Botrychium 6. Of the species familiar to N. American botanists the Osmundas, our Schizoea, our Lygodium and our Ophioglossum are left as we know them, Botrychium simplex is admitted, B. lanceolatum regarded, and probably with justice, as a variety of B. rutaceum, B. lunarioides is referred to the earlier known B. ternatnm, as had already been done by Milde, and B. Virginianum is made to include the East Indian B. lanuginosum, commonly a larger and more hairy plant. The name is here virginianum as written by Swartz, and before him by Linnæus. The name Virginicum, commonly received in N. America, seems to have originated with Michaux, from whom it was copied first by Willdenow, and then by all N. American botanists to this day. A few pages of "addenda et corrigenda," and a full index of species and synonyms conclude the work.

D. C. E.

4. Planta Wrightiance Cubenses.-Mr. WRIGHT's last distribution of his Cuban collections was made in 1865, or late in 1864. Since then he has been exploring the botany of western Cuba, and has again made very large collections, many of the species being new to the series, for the numbers have ascended from about 3,500 to 3,963. The distribution into sets is now made, all the former sets which remained unsold being incorporated into the new distribution, so that the fullest set contains 2,253 species, and the thirteenth has 637. The larger sets must contain by far the greater

part of the flora of Cuba, and the smaller ones will be of great value to amateur botanists in showing the character of tropical plants. A catalogue of names will be published in due time, especially since it is understood that Mr. Wright has now in preparation his "opus magnum" of a Flora Cubensis.

Persons wishing to purchase these plants may address Charles Wright, Esq., Wethersfield, Conn., or Prof. D. C. Eaton, New Haven, Conn. The price per century is fixed at the low rate of ten dollars in currency.

IV.

D. C. E.

MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

1. The Flow of the Great Lakes. Interesting Experiments.The Detroit Post, in an article on the various methods that have been tried from time to time to solve the mystery of the supply and outflow of the Great Lakes, gives an account of a new and successful apparatus just completed, for the purpose of measuring accurately the velocity of the currents in their tidal flow into and out of the lakes. The Post says:

"It is now two years since the newspapers of the West began to discuss whether the great lakes are fed by subaqueous springs, or have hidden outlets. The party who favored the theory of subaqueous springs asserted that more water flowed out the St. Lawrence than could be poured in by all the sources of supply known to exist, while the upholders of the idea of hidden outlets contended that evaporation and the visible outflow could not account for all the water which the lakes received and distributed.

"General W. F. Reynolds, Superintendent of the Lake Survey, determined to give this subject such consideration as, in the West, could only be afforded by the engineers employed on that work, and, accordingly, for the past two summers, observations have been made in the St. Mary's, St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers for the purpose of ascertaining the exact amount of outflow of the lakes. The river-guaging has, from the start, been entrusted to Assistant D. Farrand Henry, of Detroit, and the apparatus used is one of his own invention. This apparatus is so much more delicate and accurate than any previously tried that the results are of great value.

"To calculate the amount of outflow of any stream, it is necessary to have the area of the body of water, and its mean velocity, at any point. These two quantities multiplied together give the discharge. The first is easily obtained by making frequent soundings across the stream on a known line. The second is more difficult. The only practical methods heretofore in use, for the determination of the velocity are, first by the time of passage of floats past a known line; second, by the difference in the height at which water will stand in two tubes, one of which is bent toward the current at the bottom and the other is straight; and, third, by water mills, as they are termed, which consist of float wheels exposed to the current, the number of revolutions being recorded by AM. JOUR. SCI.-SECOND SERIES, VOL. XLVII, No. 139.-JAN., 1869.

a system of decimal gears or telltale. Of these methods the first is the only one which has been used in deep water."

Mr. Henry was dissatisfied with these methods, and devised a "Telegraphic Current Meter," which he has used with perfect success during the past season.

"This meter consists of a propeller, or float wheel, which has on its hub an eccentric, and on the axle an ivory lever, which has one end kept on the eccentric by a light spring, while into the other end a hole is drilled, meeting another hole, drilled at an angle with it, near the center of the bottom side. Into these holes a platinum wire is forced, so that the lever rests on the point of the wire coming out of the center hole. Under this point a small platinum plate is fastened to the axle. The other end of the wire is connected by a hinge joint to a long copper wire, which is fastened to the axle, but insulated from it. At the rear end of the axle are two vanes, at right angles to each other, sufficiently large to keep the wheel in the thread of the current. The whole is suspended by a yoke which has two small eyes on its side.

"The method of using the meter is as follows: A boat being anchored in the stream at the point where the current is to be tested, a weight with a copper wire attached is let down from the stern. The upper end of this wire is fastened to a spring pole, which takes up most of the motion of the boat. This wire is passed through the eyes on the side of the yoke in the meter, a measured cord is fastened to a swivel ring in the upper, and a weight to one in the lower end of the yoke. The meter may now be lowered to any depth, sliding down the anchored wire, the upper end of this wire and of that fastened to the platinum point, being connected with a battery in the boat; then at every revolution of the wheel the circuit will be opened and closed by the eccentric, raising the ivory lever, and thus breaking the connection between the platinum point and plate. If now a Morse's paper register be placed in the circuit, at every revolution of the wheel a dot will be made on the moving paper, and thus the number of revolutions in any given time can be ascertained.

"The observations in the rivers were taken on a known line, one hundred feet apart, and at each five feet of depth. One of the first things noticed was the irregularity of the beat of the counter, showing that the current pulsated.

"The pulsations are not regular, the common maximums being from one-half to one and a half minutes apart, with every five or ten minutes a greater increase or decrease. They are least in the maximum current, and increase toward the bottom and sides of the stream.

"The maximum velocity of the current was found to be at or a little below the surface, and the velocity at the bottom is probably not over two-thirds the maximum.

"The following approximate velocities and discharges of the different rivers is taken from the computations of the work last year. The quantities for the Detroit River are accurately computed: