LITERARY NOTICES. 



269 



ure and sculpture, and also the manner in 

 which intrinsic decorative elements are re- 

 modeled in accordance with the rules of text- 

 ile combination. The paper is illustrated with 

 73 figures. Prof. Cyrus Thomas supple- 

 ments his former publications on American 

 palteeographic literature with " Aids to the 

 Study of the Maya Codices," embodying some 

 original discoveries, and some explanations 

 not already brought forward. Plates 50 to 

 58 of the Dresden Codex, and portions of 

 other plates of the Dresden and other cod- 

 ices, are figured in the text. Rev. J. Owen 

 Dorsey furnishes an account of a secret so- 

 ciety of seven degrees, still existing among 

 the Osage, in which the traditions of the 

 people have been preserved. This is accom- 

 panied by two of these traditions in the 

 original language, which he has succeeded in 

 obtaining, together with an interlinear and 

 a free translation of each, with explanatory 

 remarks. An extended account of "The 

 Central Eskimo " is contributed by Dr. Franz 

 Boas, who spent a considerable time among 

 these people in the region between Hudson 

 and Baffin Bays. The scope of the paper 

 includes the topography of the region, the 

 distribution, tribal divisions, and numbers of 

 the inhabitants, their habits and customs, 

 their religious practices and beliefs, with 

 translations of their myths and legends, and 

 descriptions of their peculiar and ingenious 

 weapons, implements, and utensils. Much 

 work of previous explorers has also been 

 incorporated with the original material in 

 this account. The paper is illustrated with 

 156 figures and nine plates, two of the lat- 

 ter being folded maps and six representing 

 Eskimo drawings or carvings. A feature of 

 the paper is the notation of a number of 

 Eskimo songs. 



Catalogue of Canadian Plants. Parts I to 

 IV. By John Macoun, M.A., F. L. S., 

 F. R. S. O, Naturalist to the Geological 

 and Natural History Survey of Canada. 



Recent years have brought to the botany 

 of North America few contributions more 

 valuable than the " Catalogue of Canadian 

 Plants," by Prof. Macoun. The entire work 

 has been issued within the past six years, 

 the first part appearing in 1883, the fourth 

 in 1S88, and only recently distributed; but 

 these six years bear only small proportion 



to the actual amount of time the work has 

 cost. Prof. Macoun gives us the labor of a 

 life. For nearly forty years he has been an 

 indefatigable explorer and systematist, pur- 

 suing his investigations from Newfoundland 

 to Vancouver's, from the Lakes to the Arctic 

 Circle. The plan of the work contemplates 

 an exact enumeration of the vegetable life 

 of the Dominion, but virtually the plants of 

 all northern North America are included, 

 Alaska and even Greenland not being for- 

 gotten. For this area not only is each spe- 

 cies named, but for each, to the extent of 

 present knowledge, is given its geographical 

 range as well, its distribution, also its syn- 

 onymy, and, in many cases, notes concern- 

 ing habit and habitat. Facts of distribution 

 are given with unusual exactness. For every 

 plant each station is named and the name 

 of the collector given, so that the catalogue 

 is no mere check-list, but in so far an au- 

 thentic geographical botany. 



It were a pleasing task, did the limits of 

 this review permit, to notice at length many 

 of the interesting points which this catalogue 

 brings to light. Each specialist will, of 

 course, scan the field in search of his own 

 particular favorites, but every one at all 

 familiar with North American botany will 

 enjoy tracing the distribution of some of our 

 more common or interesting forms. The 

 common quaking asp (Populus tremuloides), 

 for example, occupies the whole Northwest, 

 from Labrador to Alaska. The sundew (Dro- 

 sera rotundifolia), common in New England, 

 but a plant which many a Western botanist 

 has vainly desired to see, is reported common 

 from Newfoundland west to the Pacific, and 

 north to the Arctic Sea. Dodccathcon Meadia 

 likewise runs north and west, and shoots its 

 dainty stars in far Alaska, while plumes of 

 Hordeum jubatum wave on the banks of the 

 Mackenzie and Yukon. Few trees cross the 

 continent from east to west. The paper 

 birch {Betula papyrifcra) is one. With this 

 may be named Picea alba and Picea nigra. 

 These two spruces start together in New- 

 foundland and extend westward across the 

 continent side by side, until the former is re- 

 placed in Columbia by P. Engelmanii, with 

 which in the Athabascan region it seems to 

 blend, while the latter (P. nigra) drifts north- 

 ward, until it finally vanishes side by side 

 with the paper birch hard by the waters of 



