THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



245 



designs for the museum building and a 

 large horticultural house. This planning 

 is still in progress, in charge of a com- 

 mission of architects, engineers, gar- 

 deners and botanists, who will complete 

 their work within a short time, and be 

 ready to submit a complete scheme to 

 the Board of Managers during the com- 

 ing autumn. Meanwhile, much prelim- 

 inary work has been accomplished in 

 clearing the ground, in grading, in the 

 planting of borders, in the establishment 

 of an extensive nursery, and in the 

 accumulation of herbarium, museum and 

 library material. Through a co-operative 

 agreement entered into with Columbia 

 University, the herbarium and botanical 

 library of the University will be de- 

 posited with the Garden, and most of the 

 research and graduate work of the Uni- 

 versity in botany will be carried on in 

 the Museum Building. 



The endowment fund has been mater- 

 ially increased, and about 430 persons 

 have become annual members of the 

 Garden, contributing ten dollars a j^ear 

 each to its support. The publication of 

 a Bulletin has been commenced by the 

 issue, in April, of the first number of 

 Volume I. 



A NEW EXCIPIENT FOR APPLYING DRUGS TO 

 THE SKIN. 



Professor Unna (Hamburg) in 1894 brought 

 forward some varnish for the skin, which con- 

 sisted chiefly of tragacanth. Tragacanth did 

 not suspend heavy particles well unless it was 

 present in a large proportion, and then the 

 varnish did not spread well. He has found a 

 perfect basis formed by the addition of gelatine 

 to the tragacanth ; the tragacanth probably 

 surrounded the gelatin, as the mixture could be 

 used with drugs which could not be used with 

 gelatin alone. The gelatin and tragacanth vrere 

 present to the extent of lYz per cent. each. 

 Professor Unna suggests that the new basis 

 should be first employed in cases of acute 

 eczema. — Lancet, 3806, p. 425. 



REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTES.* 



By Prof. H. H. RUSBY. 



A71 Illusf rated Flora of the Northern 

 United States, Canada and the British 

 Possessions From Nezvfoundland to the 

 Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Vir- 

 ginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean West- 

 ward to the io2d Meridian. By Nathaniel 

 Lord Britton, Ph. D., Emeritus Professor 

 of Botany in Columbia University, the 

 Director-in-Chief of the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden, and Hon. Addison Brown, 

 President of the Torrey Botanical Club. 

 In Three Volumes. Vol. I., Ophioglos- 

 saceae to Aizoaceae ; Ferns to Carpet- 

 weed, Royal 8vo., pp. 611, New York, 

 Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. Price 

 per volume. $3-00. 



An entirely distinct epoch in the study 

 of the North American flora is marked 

 and, as to its general influence, inaugu- 

 rated by the publication of this great 

 work. Popularization, but with a dis- 

 tinct gain to science ; a more intelligent 

 and natural arrangement of groups, the 

 application of broader and more natural 

 principles in the delimitation of species : 

 a full and careful consideration of distri- 

 bution ; a rational and just system of 

 nomenclature — these are some of the pro- 

 gressive steps which are forcibly and 

 clearly brought to mind as we examine 

 the pages of our new flora. In compar- 

 ing new works with old, we are often led 

 to disparage the former because of the 

 poorer advantages which were possessed 

 by the authors of the latter. It is, how- 

 ever, quite safe to say that in no preced- 

 ing work of the kind have the materials 

 at hand been more completely utilized, 

 nor has there been a more careful con- 

 sideration of principles or a more exhaus- 

 tive study of details. Those American 

 botanists who have prayed for more 

 botany and less nomenclature may now 



♦Reprinted from advance sheet of the Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club. 



