LITERARY NOTICES. 



847 



for each of the digital numbers. The pict- 

 ures of the first series are designed for 

 language-lessons, in which the particular 

 number is brought in and visibly repre- 

 sented, and the immediate design of which 

 is to excite thought and cultivate expres- 

 sion. The second series consists of slate 

 exercises involving the numbers to be 

 copied with changes; and these are after- 

 ward changed into diagrams, combining 

 exercises in elementary drawing, into which 

 the several numbers also enter. The third 

 series of pictures, entitled " What can you 

 tell ? " presents combinations, with the num- 

 bers still the most prominent objects to be 

 considered, which the child is invited to 

 describe, or concerning which he may com- 

 pose a story exercises which call the im- 

 agination into play, and encourage inde- 

 pendent and original expression. These 

 lessons are followed by a series of reading- 

 lessons in number and dictation exercises, 

 in combinations of from one to ten, with 

 the pictorial element still employed. In the 

 third part are given combinations in num- 

 bers from ten to twenty. 



Geological Studies. By Alexander Win- 

 ch-ell. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 

 Pp. 513. Price, $3. 



This book, representing a more advanced 

 stage of the study of geology than is fur- 

 nished in the author's " Geological Excur- 

 sions," is intended to introduce the reader 

 to the science by some natural and pleasant 

 method ; to help him to see things for him- 

 self, and draw his own conclusions from 

 them. It is, therefore, designed to be a 

 guide to the observation of Nature, and a 

 synoptical record of the more important 

 facts and doctrines of the science. It is 

 divided into two parts : " Geology induct- 

 ively presented," and "Geology treated 

 systematically." Geology is the science 

 which treats of the earth ; the earth is un- 

 der our feet ; let us, therefore, the author 

 says, u direct our attention to it, and see 

 what facts may be observed. These will 

 be geological facts. Every fact learned 

 by observing the earth is part of the science ; 

 and the things observed near home are just 

 as real science and just as important as 

 those in distant lands, of which we may 

 read in the books." The drift being nearly 

 everywhere, the reader is invited to make 



that the special subject of his study. lie 

 will find in it representations of a great 

 variety of geological phenomena and for- 

 mations, minerals and fossils. He can make 

 the facts he learns from it the basis of his 

 more extended studies in excursions, or in 

 books, after he has well traversed the field 

 in which he is able to make excursions. 

 The outcome of the first, or inductive, part 

 of the book, in which the course is carried 

 far enough to illustrate how to study fos- 

 sils in a scientific way, " is a somewhat 

 chaotic and undigested mass of facts and 

 doctrines buried in a considerable volume 

 of verbiage. It does not assuredly supply 

 the means for a methodized apprehension 

 of the elements of the subject, but it sup- 

 plies many fundamental facts, many great 

 principles, many impressions, many hints for 

 personal observation, and many impulses to 

 continue. Far better for the student to get 

 so much than to leave school in total igno- 

 rance of a science which sustains so impor- 

 tant relations to industries, to culture, and 

 to civilization. Part II is the complement 

 of this. Here the whole body of facts and 

 principles is reduced to a methodical rep- 

 resentation. . . . Here, too, the discussions 

 of the several topics are completed, and the 

 various portions are adjusted to a logical 

 relation." The book treats principally of 

 American geology, and in this all the recent 

 additions, which have transformed the sci- 

 ence so that " the subject has to be treated 

 very much as if no elementary book had 

 been written," have been made use of. The 

 motto of the first part is, " How we may ob- 

 serve the facts, and learn their meaning." 

 The successive chapters of the second part, 

 which are divided into many special sections, 

 treat of " lithological," " structural," and 

 " dynamical " geology, the " progress of 



terrestrial life," and 

 " historical " geology. 



" f ormational " and 



Guide to the Recognition of the Princi- 

 pal Orders op Cryptogams, and the 

 Commoner and more Easily Distin- 

 guished New England Genera. By 

 Frederick Leroy Sargent. Cam- 

 bridge (Mass.) : Charles W. Sever. Pp. 

 78. 



This book was prepared for the use of 

 students in the summer course in botany at 

 Harvard University, in which the author is 



