LITERARY NOTICES. 



129 



activity of investigators in this field in the 

 last few years, that Professor Goebel has 

 taken 500 pages for its present treatment. 

 Of these 500 pages three fourths of the 

 space is given to that section of the vegeta- 

 ble world popularly known as flowerless 

 plants ; for it is here, where so much was 

 uncertain, that research has been most ac- 

 tive. 



Professor Goebel is himself an original 

 investigator in botany, and the present vol- 

 ume contains not only the changes required 

 by the recent literature of the science, but 

 the results of his own research. Under 

 the circumstances, it will be no matter of 

 surprise that the provisional classification 

 of the past has given place to consider- 

 able and important changes. Among these 

 it may be mentioned in the first place, 

 that the division of the vegetable king- 

 dom into cryptogams and phanerogams is 

 out of date. The discovery of the true re- 

 lations between phanerogams (gymnosperms 

 and angiosperms) and the vascular crypto- 

 gams has revealed that the gymnosperms, 

 mosses, and vascular cryptogams form a 

 natural group aptly described as Archw- 

 ffonalce. "It would be thoroughly in ac- 

 cordance with our present knowledge to 

 divide the forms of the vegetable kingdom 

 into thallophytcs, Archaegonatae, and angi- 

 osperms." For the sake of simplicity of 

 statement, however, the gymnosperms and 

 angiosperms still form one division called 

 seed-plants (spermaphytes). The vegetable 

 kingdom is divided into four groups : Thal- 

 lophytes, briophytes (mosses), vascular 

 cryptogams, and seed-plants. In classify- 

 ing the lowest group, or thallophytes, it is 

 now established that lichens do not form a 

 special class distinct from algre and fungi, 

 but must be ranked with fungi. In conse- 

 quence of the present transitional character 

 of botanical terminology, Professor Goebel 

 has found it difficult to explain the relations 

 of the different groups to each other, and 

 has been obliged to modify the terminology 

 of previous editions. But he has given a 

 very full "Explanation of Terms" at the 

 end of the volume. A prominent feature 

 of the book is an attempt to make use 

 of a consistent terminology based upon ho- 

 mology ; and Professor Goebel expresses 

 the hope that the work of improvement will 



VOL. XXXI. 9 



continue until " we shall no longer call the 

 same object in one place a ' placenta,' in 

 another a ' receptacle ' or a ' columella,' or 

 use the term 'frons' for the thallus of a 

 Marchantia or a Pcllia, or apply the term 

 pro-embryo alike to the protonema of the 

 mosses, the prothallium of ferns, and the 

 suspensor of spermaphytes." This volume 

 will be indispensable to teachers who care 

 to give their pupils the latest product of 

 scientific inquiry. 



History of the Pacific States of North 

 America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. 

 Vol. XXVII. British Columbia. San 

 Francisco : The History Company. Pp. 

 792. Price, $5. 



TnERE is little in this book to remind 

 one of the time3 when " 54 40' or fight " 

 was the political cry of the day, and of the 

 great excitement which our country suffered 

 over the Oregon question. Yet the subject 

 of the dispute is the precise territory that 

 was involved in that controversy. That the 

 memory of that dispute should have so 

 lapsed in forty years that it should be only 

 incidentally referred to, if at all, in this 

 volume of nearly eight hundred pages, is a 

 silent comment on the changes that may be 

 wrought in a generation, and a sign of the 

 growing civilization of the age. The period 

 covered by this history is from 1*792 to 

 1887. It is divided by the author into six 

 divisions : First, the discoveries, claims, 

 disputations, and diplomacies relative to 

 the ownership and division of the domain, 

 commonly referred to as Nootka affairs. 

 The second epoch began with the coming of 

 the fur-traders by land, and continued until 

 1849, when colonization and colonial gov- 

 ernment began on Vancouver Island. The 

 third term, during which the Hudson Bay 

 Company was still everywhere dominant, 

 lasted till 1858, when the gold discovery 

 overturned the existing order of things, and 

 raised the mainland into a colony. The 

 fourth period, during which there were two 

 colonics and two governors, concluded with 

 the union of the island and mainland under 

 one colonial government in 1866. The af- 

 fairs of the confederated colony constitute 

 the fifth era, terminating in confederation 

 with Canada in 1871. The present may be 

 regarded as the sixth period. At this time,, 



