LITERARY NOTICES. 



711 



ful presentation of the subjects under con- 

 sideration that has characterized Prof. Fos- 

 ter's former work, and has made this in the 

 past one of the best works on physiology 

 that we have ; and the incorporation of the 

 more recent discoveries in that science in 

 this volume sustains its high standard. The 

 only thing that detracts from this volume is 

 the omission of an index. 



The Great World's Farm. By Selina 

 Gate. New York: Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 365. 



This book is described in the subtitle as 

 " Some Account of Nature's Crops, and how 

 they are grown." It maintains the proposi- 

 tion that " the whole earth is one great farm 

 or garden, almost everywhere covered with 

 vegetation, and bringing forth crops of the 

 most luxuriant and varied kind " ; and that 

 Nature farms in ways of her own, on a large 

 scale and without fuss, with a tillage of the 

 most thorough kind, though it may be car- 

 ried on without steel plows, and so quietly 

 as to escape our notice. "There are vast 

 pasture-lands here, there are extensive for- 

 ests there ; there are woods, jungles, heaths, 

 moors, downs, but they have, all been 

 planted ; and the soil was prepared in the 

 first instance, and has been renewed since, 

 by laborers who are not less truly deserving 

 of the name of laborer than the plowman, 

 though they do not work with his imple- 

 ments." Of these laborers we are intro- 

 duced first to the " pioneer laborers " — the 

 gases of air and water — " which wear away 

 the very hardest rocks by degrees " ; then to 

 the " soil-makers " — the lichens which sprout 

 in the debris of the weathered rocks, and the 

 roots of which, with those of the plants that 

 follow them, continue the work done by air 

 and water ; to the " soil-carriers " — the 

 rivers ; the " soil-binders " — grass and plant 

 roots ; and the " field laborers " — worms and 

 burrowing insects and animals, which loosen 

 the soil ; the work of which in the field par- 

 ticularly under view is graphically described. 

 The work of water and roots, and the reason 

 for deserts, are more fully considered. The 

 office of plants in drawing food from the soil 

 and leaving it there when they die in a more 

 assimilable condition, and leaves and their 

 work, are described — the influence of cli- 

 mate, " blossom and seed," the meaning of 



fertilization and the work of insects in assist- 

 ing the process, and the methods of diffusion, 

 are explained ; and chapters follow on the 

 Chances of Life, Friends and Foes to Plant 

 Life, Nature's Militia, and Man's Work on 

 the Farm. The whole is a successful at- 

 tempt to present knowledge of the phenome- 

 na and processes of growth in an attractive 

 form, to which a few excellent illustrations 

 lend additional grace. 



Manual of Qualitative Blowpipe Analysis 

 and Determinative Mineralogy. By F. 

 M. Endlich. New York : The Scientific 

 Publishing Co. Pp. 456. Price, $4. 



In this treatise the use of the blowpipe 

 in analytical and determinative work is 

 treated with great fullness. The chapter on 

 appliances and flames is fully illustrated. 

 This is followed by descriptions of the sev- 

 eral modes of examining minerals, including 

 some operations with wet reagents. A dozen 

 pages of tables giving reactions for the oxides 

 of earths and metals constitute Chapter III. 

 Some seventy pages are devoted to promi- 

 nent blowpipe reactions for the elements and 

 their principal mineral compounds, arranged 

 alphabetically under the names of the ele- 

 ments. Special suggestions as to the treat- 

 ment of alloys, metallurgical products, and 

 pigments are given ; and these are followed 

 by a systematic method of qualitative analy- 

 sis before the blowpipe. Over a hundred 

 pages of determinative tables are given, in 

 which more than four hundred species of 

 minerals are described. In these tables 

 seven chief divisions are made — namely, me- 

 tallic malleable minerals, flexible minerals, 

 sectile malleable minerals, minerals with and 

 those without metallic luster, earthy min- 

 erals, and hydrocarbon compounds. The 

 methods of Prof. Richter, of Freiberg, have 

 been largely followed in this manual, the au- 

 thor having been one of Richter's pupils. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Annual Report of the Postmaster-General to 

 June 30, 1892. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing Office. 



Bates, Henry Walter. The Naturalist on the 

 River Amazon. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 



Becker, George F. Finite Homogeneous Strain, 

 etc., of Rocks. Rochester, N. Y., Geological So- 

 ciety of America. 



Blue and Gray. Monthly. January, 1893. Phil- 

 adelphia : Patriotic Publishing Company. §2.50 

 a year. 



