1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 371 



crab may occur in both the Indies. In naming Uca heterochela 

 (Lamarck), the change from Lamarck's more scholarly hetcrocltdos is 

 unneeded, since the Greek irs^jjXo; applies equally to the masculine 

 and feminine genders. In dealing with the genus Palaemon, Miss 

 Rathbun unhappily relies on Latreille's ' Considerations generates ' 

 of 1810, a book with a long-winded title too troublesome to quote, 

 a book crowded with definitions that don't define, and endimr with 

 a list of types that are not described. 



A Year-Book of Agriculture 



The Year-Book of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 1896 

 has just reached us, and set us wondering why we have not a 

 Department of Agriculture manned by scientific experts, which 

 might issue each year for the benefit of farmers and others in- 

 terested in the subject as much useful matter as is contained in 

 the six hundred odd pages of the Transatlantic publication. The 

 history of the year-book is this. It is the successor of the Agri- 

 cultural Beport which, in its original form, was made up almost 

 wholly of business reports for the use of Congress. When, how- 

 ever, it began to circulate more freely among farmers, papers on 

 agriculture, and discussions on the results of scientific investigations 

 were introduced, and it gradually became more and more a popular 

 report, business and executive matter being reduced to the smallest 

 possible proportion, till finally it was decided (in 1895) to issue 

 it in two parts — viz. (1) an executive and business report, (2) a 

 volume of papers " specially suited to interest and instruct the 

 farmers of the country," and to include also " a general report of 

 the operations of the Department for their information." This 

 second part is the Year-Book, and the one now before us is the 

 third of the series. It is published in an edition of 500,000 copies 

 for free distributing, and is therefore, as the assistant secretary 

 remarks in the preface, " in many respects unique." Following 

 the report of the Secretary, which occupies nearly fifty pages and 

 is eminently suggestive, are thirty papers (filling 500 pages) con- 

 tributed by nearly as many scientific expert members of the staff. 

 The 164 figures and six plates are a useful addition. Thus the 

 value of a paper on some common poisonous plants is much 

 enhanced by very passable pictures of the poison ivy {Rhusradicans), 

 water hemlock (Cicuta maculata), death cup {Amanita phaUoides), 

 and others. The same applies to some remarks by Mr Herbert 

 Webber on the influence of environment on plant varieties. 

 Enumeration of some of the titles will give an idea of the wide 

 scope of the Year-Book : — extermination of noxious animals by 

 bounties — potash and its function in agriculture — the country 



