POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



4 2 3 



Materials for German Prose Composition. By 

 C. A. Bucheim, F. C. P. Ninth edition. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1885. Pp.252. $1.25. 



The Occult World. By A. P. Sinnett. Boston : 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. Pp. 228. $1.25. 



The Philosophic Grammar of the American 

 Languages, as set forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt. 

 By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. Philadelphia : Mc- 

 Calla & Stavely. 1385. Pp. 51. 



The Invalids 1 Tea-Tray. By Susan A. Brown. 

 Boston : J. R. Osgood & Co. 1885. Pp. G7. 



Russia under the Tzars. By Stepniak. Trans- 

 lated by William WestalL New York : Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 1S85. Pp. 8S1. $1.50. 



An Inglorious Columbus. By Edward P. Vin- 

 Ing. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1885. Pp. 

 788. $5. 



Collected Essays in Political and Social Science. 

 By William G. Sumner. New York : Henry Holt 

 & Co. 18?5. Pp. 1T3. $1.50. 



Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous. 

 By Julius A. Palmer, Jr. Boston : L. Prang &, Co. 

 l3i5. Pp. 5, and Twelve Colored Plates. 



The Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior. 

 By Boland Dner Irving. Washington : Govern- 

 ment Printing Office. 1883. Pp. 464. Illustrated. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The American Association. The next 

 meeting of the American Association is ap- 

 pointed to be held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 

 beginning August 20th. The Association at 

 its last or Philadelphia meeting expressed a 

 preference for Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, as 

 the place of its next meeting, if suitable ac- 

 commodations could be secured there, nam- 

 ing Ann Arbor as an alternative place. It 

 has been ascertained that, while hotel-room 

 is not wanting at Mount Desert in July and 

 the latter part of September, all possible 

 accommodations are taken up at the time 

 the Association would meet, in August. At 

 Ann Arbor, the university buildings and the 

 rooms usually occupied by the students will 

 be at the disposal of the Association. 



The British Association. The arrange- 

 ments for the coming meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association at Aberdeen, Septemoer 9th, 

 are nearly completed. The president-elect 

 for the year is Sir Lyon Playfair. The 

 general secretaries are Captain Gal ton and 

 Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, while Profess- 

 or Bonny serves for the last time as acting 

 secretary. The presidents of the various 

 sections arc : A, Mathematical and Physi- 

 cal Science, Professor G. Chrystal ; B, Chem- 

 ical Science, Professor H. E. Armstrong ; C, 

 Geology, Professor J. W. Judd ; D, Biol- 

 ogy, Professor W. C. Mcintosh ; E, Geog- 

 raphy, General J. T. Walker ; F, Economic 



Science and Statistics, Professor Henry Sidg- 

 wick ; G, Mechanical Science, Mr. Benjamin 

 Baker; II. Anthropology, Mr. Francis Galton. 

 The lecture to working-men will be deliv- 

 ered by Mr. Harold B. Dixon, on " The Na- 

 ture of Explosives." The other lectures 

 will be by Professor Grylls Adams, subject 

 not announced, and Mr. John Murray, di- 

 rector of the Challenger Expedition Com- 

 mission, on " The Great Ocean Basins." 



How Floras are changing. Professor 

 C. E. Bessey notices, in the " American 

 Naturalist," on the subject of " Plant Mi- 

 grations," a few instances in which certain 

 plants have disappeared from the flora of a 

 part of Central Iowa, to have their places 

 taken by other species coming in from 

 abroad. Fifteen years ago the Dysodia 

 chrysanthemoides grew by the road-side in 

 great abundance ; now it is scarcely to be 

 found, and is replaced by the introduced 

 " dog-fennel," or " May- weed " of New Eng- 

 land (Anlhemis cotula). Then, the small 

 flea-bane {Erigcron divaricalum) abounded 

 on dry soils ; now it is rapidly disappearing. 

 Mulleins have begun to appear, and the 

 squirrel-tail grass (Hordeunijiibatum), which 

 had no place in the flora, is very abun- 

 dant, and has been for ten years. The low 

 amaranth (Amaranlus bii(oides), which was 

 rarely found, is now abundant, and has mi- 

 grated fully one hundred and fifty miles 

 northeastward. Bur grass, also, a most of- 

 fensive plant, has come in, and appears to 

 be rapidly increasing. Professor Bessey is 

 informed by old settlers that in Nebraska 

 the buffalo-grasses were formerly abundant 

 in the eastern part of the State, but have 

 now retreated for a hundred or a hundred 

 and fifty miles, while they have been fol- 

 lowed by the blue-stems {Andropogon and 

 Chrysopogon), which now grow in great 

 luxuriance all over the plains, where twenty 

 years ago the ground was practically bare. 

 The same is taking place in Dakota. 



Color of Arctic Animals. Mr. Wallace's 

 theory that the white color of many Arctic 

 animals is due to protective adaptation or 

 mimicry has been disputed by Mr. Meldola, 

 who speaks of some Arctic animals that are 

 not white, and regards that color as having 

 some relation to the radiation or absorption 



