i8 95 . SOME NEW BOOKS. 207 



We have received from Mr. C. A. Barber, the Superintendent of 

 Agriculture in the Leeward Islands, a paper on the grasses of Antigua, 

 and the second number of ihe Agricultural 'Journal of she Leeward 

 Islands, an octavo of 28 pages, published at St. John's, Antigua, 

 price 6d. The journal contains notes on Durians and Gambier in 

 Dominica, two plants native to the East Indies, as will have been 

 noticed by readers of Mr. Ridley's notes on the mammals of 

 Singapore, and now transplanted to the West through the medium of 

 the botanists at Kew. The Durian is a paradox, revolting to the 

 smell but delicious to the taste ; a nutritious food, it never palls upon 

 the appetite or injures the digestion. A good description of it is to 

 be found in Wallace's " Malay Archipelago." "The fruit grows on a 

 large forest tree, is about the size and shape of a cocoa-nut, has a 

 thick rind with short, stout spines, and its five carpels are filled with 

 cream-coloured pulp. Its acclimatisation in Dominica will be an 

 additional attraction to tourists. Urucaria Gambir, which also has been 

 successfully introduced, possesses very valuable tanning properties, 

 and is said to impart an unrivalled softness to leather. The propaga- 

 tion of the plant presents some difficulties ; hitherto its cultivation has 

 been " a wasteful one, in that it has formed a catch crop in the 

 Chinese pepper gardens, until the pepper crop was matured." Its 

 establishment at Dominica is expected to be of advantage to the 

 island. We are glad to see, from these and other papers, that the 

 energetic planters and merchants of the Leeward Islands are fully 

 alive to the necessity for truly scientific work in these days of severe 

 competition. 



The new edition of the Molluscan portion of Bronn's " Klassen 

 und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs " progresses slowly but surely. 

 Lieferung 15-17 has just reached us, containing the conclusion of 

 the Amphineura, and the opening chapters on the Scaphopoda 

 (pp. 337-400). It is accompanied by three plates illustrating the 

 development of Chiton that are most beautifully executed. As an 

 instance of the way in which the text of the work is brought well 

 up-to-date may be cited the inclusion of Sowerby's new genus Schizo- 

 dentalium with a reproduction of the figures, which appeared in the 

 Proceedings of the Malacological Society, pt. iv., pi. xii. — a reproduction, 

 by-the-bye, that is a decided improvement on the originals. 



Brill, of Leiden, has published " A Bibliography of the Japanese 

 Empire," by Fr. von Wenckstern. This professes to be, as its 

 secondary title informs us, " A Classified List of all Books, Essays 

 and Maps in European languages relating to Dai Nihon [Great 

 Japan] published in Europe, America and in the East from 1859-93 

 a.d. [Vlth year of Ansei — XXVIth of Meiji] ." The book contains, 

 in addition, a facsimile reprint of Leon Page's well-known " Biblio- 

 graphic Japonaise depuis le xv e siecle jusqu'a 1859." It is divided 

 into sections, as : Travel, Religion, Philology, Belles Lettres, History, 

 Law, Medicine, Education, Fine Arts, Ethnography, Natural 

 History, etc., and is published at twenty-five shillings. 



We learn from Science Gossip that the Quekett Microscopical 

 Club has decided in future to issue its journal half-yearly instead of 

 quarterly. The same journal informs us that the British Naturalist is 

 dead. Science Gossip itself is to be raised in price from fourpence to 

 sixpence a month, and sundry alterations are promised in its pages. 



Messrs. Dulau & Co. have sent us a catalogue of works on 

 General Zoology, which they offer for sale. 



