LITERARY NOTICES. 



683 



to believe the testimony of many not un- 

 intelligent observers, a very evident tendency 

 to " Americanization " is everywhere visible 

 in European life, and naturally this tendency 

 would be apparent first of all in political 

 life. Even in the quiet of the German uni- 

 versities " Americanization" is an ever-pres- 

 ent specter. Yet in these two volumes lit- 

 tle or no reference is made to the United 

 States. True, the author says of the Amer- 

 ican Revolution that " it was a prelude to 

 revolution in Europe " ; that it " stimulated 

 the popular movement in England and in 

 France." But that is all. With Sir Ers- 

 kine May the post-Revolutionary history of 

 the United States goes for nothing, appa - 

 ently, in so far as European democracy is 

 concerned. Surely this is a fatal oversight 

 in our author, and one that can not be re- 

 paired without rewriting the entire work. 



The Native Flowers and Ferns op the 

 United States. By Thomas Meehan. 

 Monthly Parts, each with Four Colored 

 Plates. Boston : L. Prang & Co. 1878. 

 50 cents each. 



We have before us Parts VI. to XII. in- 

 clusive, completing the first of the two vol- 

 umes of this valuable work ; and, though we 

 have noticed it before, we take occasion 

 on the completion of Vol. I. to again com- 

 mend it to the favorable attention of our 

 readers. The text is a familiar account of 

 the different flowers and ferns. Their asso- 

 ciations with human history, wherever such 

 associations have existed, are pleasantly re- 

 counted ; the medicinal and household uses 

 of each species receive attention ; the botani- 

 cal characters are clearly stated ; in short, 

 the purely literary portion of the work is of 

 the highest excellence. As for the plates, 

 it can be said of them without exaggeration 

 that they leave nothing to be desired, wheth- 

 er with respect to their artistic beauty or 

 their fidelity to nature. 



The Races of Ecropean Turkey. By Ed- 

 son L. Clark. New York : Dodd, Mead 

 & Co. 1878. Pp. 532. Price, $3. 



The first of the three parts into which 

 this work is divided contains a sketch of By- 

 zantine history from the beginning of Jus- 

 tinian's reign down to the fall of Constanti- 

 nople. The second gives an account of the 



modern Greeks and Albanians, their national 

 characters, the state of religion and educa- 

 tion among them, and their present condition 

 and prospects. The third part is devoted 

 to the Turkish Slavonians, the Wallachians, 

 and the Gypsies, with sketches of the his- 

 tory of Servia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. 



Report of the Board of Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1877. 

 Washington: Government Printing-Of- 

 fice. 1878. Pp. 500. 



Among the most important papers con- 

 tained in this report is one on " Color- 

 Blindness in its Relation to Accidents by 

 Rail and Sea," by Professor Holmgren, of 

 the Upsal University. The author gives 

 thehistory of color-blindness, and points out 

 practical methods for discovering and de- 

 termining defects of the sense of color. To 

 this treatise is appended an article on " Color- 

 Blindness" contributed to the "Princeton 

 Review " more than thirty years ago by Pro- 

 fessor Joseph Henry. There is a number of 

 papers, by different authors, on American an- 

 tiquities. Other essays in the report which 

 are specially worthy of notice are: "Notes 

 on the History and Climate of New Mexico," 

 " Change of the Mexican Axolotl to an Am- 

 blystoma" (translated from the German), 

 " Diminution of the Aqueous Vapor of the 

 Atmosphere with Increase of Altitude" 

 (translated from the French), together with 

 several other short memoirs on meteorologi- 

 cal subjects. 



Bulletin of the United States Geological 

 AND Geographical Survey of the Ter- 

 ritories. Vol. IV., No. 3, pp. 200 ; No. 

 4, pp. 140. 1878. Washington: Gov- 

 ernment Printing- Office. 



The contents of No. 3 include notes on 

 the birds of Dakota and Montana, by Dr. 

 Elliott Coues ; on fishes from the Rio Grande, 

 by Dr. D. S. Jordan ; on the North Ameri- 

 can Pyralidce, by Professor A. R. Grote; 

 paleontological papers, by Dr. C. A. White ; 

 notes on fossils foimd in a dark shale dis- 

 covered at Independence, Iowa, by Professor 

 S. Calvin; and a paper on the mineralogy 

 of Nevada, by Dr. W. J, Hoftman. No. 4 

 comprises a memoir by S. H. Scudder on 

 certain fossil insects ; a report by Dr. E. 

 Coues on the fishes of Dakota and Montana ; 

 a catalogue of plants of the same region, by 



