SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



851 



with a distinctive heading. A table of the 

 more important European formations is ap- 

 pended to the volume, but few of the subdi- 

 visions having been mentioned in the text. 

 Another appendix contains the system of 

 classification of the animals and plants which 

 has been used in the book. There is a full 

 index, and the mechanical execution of the 

 volume is of a high order. 



Prof. Storer^s work on the chemistry of 

 agriculture, which first appeared in 1887 and 

 was revised in 1892, has been again revised.* 

 It is based on the lectures which the author 

 has delivered at the Bussey Institution, a 

 department of Harvard University, now for 

 twenty-five years. The chemical nature and 

 behavior toward plants of every substance 

 that has been used to any extent as a ferti- 

 lizer are set forth in these volumes. Other 

 subjects discussed are the relations of water 

 to the soil, the effects of tillage, rotation of 

 crops, the management of hay and grain 

 crops, the production of ensilage, etc. The 

 additions that have been made in this edi- 

 tion, and the fact that it has been entirely 

 reset in larger type, have necessitated print- 

 ing the work in three volumes instead of two 

 as heretofore. 



The second volume of Britton and Brown's 

 Illustrated Flora of the Northern United 

 States,\ etc., gives the families, genera, and 

 species from Portulaca to the dogwoods and 

 tupelos, seventy-two families, in Choripet- 

 alee; and from the clethras to Buckbean, 

 sixteen families, in Gam,opetalce. We have 

 already indicated, in our notice of the first vol- 

 ume of this work, its general character and 

 scope. We have to refer specially here chief- 

 ly to the pains which are taken to make the 

 work as a whole and the particular descriptions 

 plain to the most untechnical reader. Every 



* Agriculture In Some of its Relations with 

 Chemistry. By F. H. Storer. In three volumes. 

 Seventh edition, revised and enlarged. New York : 

 Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $5, net. 



+ An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United 

 States, Canada, and the British Posssesions, from 

 Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern 

 Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic 

 Ocean Northward to the 103d Meridian. By 

 Nathaniel Lord Britton and the Hon. Addison 

 Brown. Vol. II. Portulacacse to Menyanthaceae. 

 Portulaca to Buckbean. New York : Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. Pp. 643. Price, $3. 



species is figured as to general habits, leaf, 

 flower, and fruit ; English names are given 

 or the botanical names are translated into 

 meaning English for each family, genus, and 

 species; and English measures are used, so 

 that the plain student may conceive at once 

 and as if with his eyes shut the dimension 

 indicated without having to look at a scale 

 or make a mathematical reduction. Com- 

 plete indexes are provided of English and of 

 Latin names. 



Mr. Thayer's essay on the Hebrews in 

 Egypt and their JExodics* is an attempt to 

 find if there be not in the Pentateuch a rea- 

 sonably credible, historic narrative which 

 may be accepted with as much confidence 

 as any other chapter of history so ancient. 

 The argument is, in brief, that, owing to the 

 strong race feeling of the Jews, the genealo- 

 gies of their families were the most carefully 

 recorded and the most uniformly coherent, 

 consistent, and jealously preserved part of 

 their history ; that here we shall find firm 

 ground to stand on, if anywhere; that the 

 annals of the Pharaohs as now accepted by 

 Egyptologists support and confirm these gene- 

 alogies; and through these is to be traced 

 the real thread of historic truth. While the 

 author does not hold to the usually accepted 

 views concerning the Pentateuch, he has no 

 sympathy with what is called the destructive 

 school of criticism. His argument is, on the 

 contrary, intended to be constructive and 

 preservative. 



" A practical treatise for practical men " 

 is what Dr. Louis Bell has aimed to make 

 his recent book on Electric Power Trarui- 

 mission (Johnston Co., $2.50). After some 

 discussion of elementary electrical principles 

 and transmission of power by other than 

 electrical means, he gives a chapter to power 

 transmission by continuous currents, which 

 up to the present time is the commoner mode. 

 He then takes up the coming mode of power 

 transmission, namely, by alternating currents. 

 He points out the properties of alternating 

 circuits that have a direct bearing on power 

 transmission, and discusses monophase, poly- 

 phase, and heterophase systems and the 

 forms of apparatus used with each. A chap- 



* The Hebrews in Egypt and their Exodus. 

 By Alexander Wheelock Thayer. Peoria, 111. : 

 E. 8. Willcox. Pp. 315. Price, $1.25. 



