LITERARY NOTICES. 



135 



the family growing around tbem, many of 

 which are so unobtrusive in color that they 

 might escape notice unless attention were 

 specially called to them, is to be in every 

 way commended. According to Mr. Bald- 

 win, the section of the United States lying 

 east of the Mississippi and north of North 

 Carolina and Tennessee produces fifty-nine 

 species and varieties of orchids, of which 

 forty-seven are found growing in New Eng- 

 land. The matter of the present volume is 

 adapted to satisfy both the general reader 

 and the inquirer for exact facts and scien- 

 tific details. First, we have Mr. Baldwin's 

 general account, free from technical terms, 

 of the family characteristics ; then, the tech- 

 nical synopsis of the family in New Eng- 

 land, from Gray's " Manual." This is fol- 

 lowed by a popular essay of living interest 

 on the different species, from which the ele- 

 ment of gossip is not absent, and which, 

 adorned with many graceful woodcut illus- 

 trations, forms the bulk of the volume. At 

 the end are"given a comparative list showing 

 the range of each species, a bibliography, 

 and a list of students of orchids in each New 

 England State. 



Taxatiox in the United States, 1 '789-1 8 16. 

 By Henry Carter Adams. Pp. 79. 

 Price, 50 cents. Institutional Begin- 

 nings IN A Western State, By Jesse 

 Mact. Pp. 38. Price, 25 cents, In- 

 dian Monet as a Factor in New Eng- 

 land Civilization. By William B. 

 Weeden, a. M, Baltimore : N. Murray. 

 Pp. 51. Price, 50 cents. 



The monographs named above are three 

 numbers of the " Johns Hopkins University 

 Studies of Historical and Political Science." 

 The subject of the first work on the list is 

 of more than usual current interest on ac- 

 count of its relation to the policy of so-called 

 " protection " which still holds its grip on 

 our national financial polity. The first 

 measures of taxation to which the term 

 " protective " may be applied appear from 

 it to have been adopted when our govern- 

 ment had hardly yet got under way, as a foil 

 to the efforts of Great Britain to restrict 

 our trade and prevent the growth of Ameri- 

 can commerce, and were wholly political in 

 their aim. The beginning of systematic ef- 

 forts to build up American manufactures 

 through the operation of the tariff was of 

 several years later date. 



The second work traces the development 

 of social and political institutions in Iowa 

 during the period when the communities 

 scattered over its soil were unorganized and 

 not attached to any kind of government. 

 The people met, voluntarily, within their 

 own precincts and adopted such regulations 

 as their circumstances demanded for the 

 protection of their lives and property, and 

 particularly for security in the possession 

 and confirmation of their "claims." These 

 proceedings were outside of all law, and in 

 fact contrary to the laws of the United 

 States relating to the public lands, but they 

 created a custom " whose broad and beaten 

 path leading directly across the statute ob- 

 literated every apparent vestige of its exist- 

 ence " ; and from the foundations laid by 

 them has been built up the present enlight- 

 ened Commonwealth. 



Mr. Weeden's essay gives new and en- 

 larged ideas of the importance of wampum 

 as a medium of trade in the early days of 

 the colonies, and assigns it a place among 

 real moneys having a solid value even when 

 estimated by the criterion by which we are 

 accustomed to judge the gold and silver cur- 

 rencies of commercial nations. From this 

 aspect of the subject the author is led to 

 consider the relations of the two civiliza- 

 tions which met on our continent nearly 

 three centuries ago, and to show that the 

 conflicts which arose and prevailed between 

 the whites and the Indians were not the 

 fruits of personal hostilities, and were not 

 dependent on ambitions or caprice, but were 

 the inevitable results of the diverse ways of 

 looking upon life and its duties, and of the 

 different religious systems, to which the two 

 parties had been bred. 



Hand-Book for Horsewomen. By H. L. 

 DE BrssiGNT. New York: D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. Pp. 75. Price, 50 cents. 



A PLAIN, practical book for teaching 

 women to obtain and maintain a seat on the 

 horse and to manage the animal. While 

 advising that the English method of letting 

 the horse to a large extent control his own 

 movements be not neglected, it devotes par- 

 ticular attention to the inculcation, in addi- 

 tion to that, of the Continental method of 

 bringing the animal under complete control 

 by securing the mastery of his hind-legs. 



