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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their life history. The same law as to spe- 

 cialization holds good among the fossil ver- 

 tebrates. 



Pedigree Photographs. — Sir Francis Gal- 

 ton unfolded before the British Association 

 a plan for the systematic collection of photo- 

 graphs of pedigree stock, particularly of cattle 

 breeds, and of more information about them 

 than is now obtainable. He believes that a 

 system of this sort would greatly facilitate 

 the study of heredity. The author had pre- 

 viously shown how the general knowledge 

 that offspring can inherit peculiarities from 

 their ancestry as well as from their parents 

 was superseded by a general law the nature 

 of which was first suggested to him by theo- 

 retical considerations, and this ancestral law 

 proves the importance of a much more com- 

 prehensive system of records than now ex- 

 ists. The breeder should be able to compare 

 the records of all the near ancestry of the 

 animals he proposes to mate in respect to the 

 qualities in which he is interested. No pres- 

 ent source for such information is compar- 

 able with what the system proposed would 

 furnish. A habitual study of the form of 

 each pure-bred animal in connection with the 

 portraits of all its nearest ancestry would 

 test current opinions and decide between con- 

 flicting ones, and could not fail to suggest 

 new ideas. Likenesses would be traced to 

 prepotent ancestors, and the amount of their 

 several prepotencies would be defined ; forms 

 and features that supplement one another 

 or " nick in," and others that clash or com- 

 bine awkwardly, would be observed and re- 

 corded ; and conclusions based on incomplete 

 and inaccurate memories of ancestry would 

 give way to others founded on more exact 

 data. The value of the ancestral law would 

 be adequately tested, and it would be pos- 

 sible to amend it when required. 



English Names for Plants.— In the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Torrey Botanical Club, pub- 

 lished in its journal for July, Dr. V. Havard 

 suggested some principles which it would be 

 well to follow in applying English names to 

 plants, predicating that an authorized ver- 

 nacular binomial should be assigned to each 

 plant, so that ambiguity and confusion may 

 be avoided. In the absence of suitable Eng- 

 lish names already recognized, it seems best 



to adopt the Latin genus name, if short and 

 easy, like Cicuta, Parnassia, Hibiscus, or a 

 close translation thereof, when possible, like 

 astragal, chenopody, cardamin, while the spe- 

 cific English name should be an equivalent of 

 the Latin one or a descriptive adjective. In 

 case of all English binomials clearly applying 

 to well-known individual species and no oth- 

 ers, all substantives are capitalized without a 

 hyphen, as in Witch Hazel, May Apple, and 

 Dutchman's Pipe. In all genera in which 

 two or more species must be designated, the 

 genus name is compounded into one word 

 without a hyphen, as Peppergrass, Sweetbrier, 

 Goldenrod, Hedgenettle, etc. ; except in long 

 names, where the eye requires the hyphen, 

 as Prairie-clover, Forget-me-not. Genus 

 names in the possessive case (St. John's-wort) 

 are written with the hyphen, followed by a 

 lower-case initial. Plants commemorating 

 individual men (Douglas Spruce, Coulter Pine) 

 are written without the mark of the possess- 

 ive. In specific names participial endings are 

 suppressed, the participle becoming a sub- 

 stantive, which is added as a suffix without 

 the hyphen ; thus Heartleaved Willow is 

 changed to Heartleaf Willow. In the discus- 

 sion that followed this paper, President Ad- 

 dison Brown and Dr. T. F. Allen deprecated 

 the manufacture of book names. The secre- 

 tary defended the use of vernacular names, 

 saying that they deserved more attention, 

 and adding that in their absence the generic 

 name should be used unchanged. Many 

 Latin names, as Portulacea, win their way 

 without change as soon as they are fairly 

 made familiar. " Coined names seldom live. 

 A name to be successful must be a growth, 

 as language is." 



Cooking Schools in Philadelphia. — The 



establishment of schools in Philadelphia for 

 the teaching of cookery is mentioned, in the 

 Annual Report of the Superintendent of 

 Public Schools in that city, among the re- 

 sults of the general movement for manual 

 training, as a means of mental development 

 and practical knowledge. The teaching was 

 introduced experimentally into the Girls' 

 Normal School in 188V, and was in the fol- 

 lowing year made a regular branch of the 

 course. It was later extended to other 

 schools. There are now eight school kitch- 

 ens under the department of Public Instruc- 



