LITERARY NOTICES. 



851 



War and Peace. An Ilistorical Novel. By 



Count Legs Tolstoi. New York : W. S. 



Gottsbergcr. Two volumes. Pp. 322 



and 357. 



This work will command attention on 

 account of the fame of the author, who, 

 after having for a considerable time held 

 an important official position under the Em- 

 peror of Russia, retired from public life 

 and turned his attention to literature. He 

 is now one of the most prominent Russian 

 writers. The story relates to that period 

 of the Napoleonic wars, from 1805 to 1807, 

 which preceded the Peace of Tilsit, and in- 

 troduces as actors several of the prominent 

 characters of the time. The present edi- 

 tion is a double translation, the story hav- 

 ing been first translated from Russian into 

 French by a Russian lady, and then into 

 English by Clara Bell. 



Manual of the Botany of the Rocky 

 Mountain Region. By John M. Coul- 

 ter. New York: Ivison, Blakeman, 

 Taylor & Co. Pp. 480, 



" West of the Mississippi Valley prairie 

 region," says the author of this " Manual," 

 " there are three well-defined floras : One is 

 that of the Pacific slope ; another is Mexican 

 in character, extending from the Great Basin 

 to Arizona, New Mexico, Western Texas, 

 and southward into Mexico; the third is the 

 Rocky Mountain region, extending eastward 

 across the plains to the prairies." The 

 first floral region is descriptively provided 

 for in two volumes on the " Botany of Cali- 

 fornia " ; the botany of the Great Basin is 

 described in works by Sereno Watson and 

 Dr. Rothrock. The third region was im- 

 perfectly described in Professor Porter's 

 " Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado," a first 

 attempt, published about ten years ago. 

 The present volume is an attempt to furnish 

 a more adequate presentation of the subject 

 than could be given at that time, and to 

 provoke still further advance and improve- 

 ment. The range it is intended to cover 

 includes Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, 

 Western Dakota, Western Nebraska, and 

 Western Kansas. In it are also included 

 the larger part of the contiguous flora, run- 

 ning into the western part of the Indian 

 Territory, Northwestern Texas, Northern 

 New Mexico and Arizona, and Eastern Utah 

 and Idaho, for all except their own peculiar 



plants. In Utah the range is carried west- 

 ward by the Uintah and Wahsatch Mount- 

 ains, whose plants are intended to be in- 

 cluded. This edition only claims to be a 

 compilation, and an orderly arrangement 

 and sifting of scattered material — an ar- 

 rangement and sifting that were greatly 

 needed, for much of the material was prac- 

 tically inaccessible. 



Studies from the Biological Laboratory 

 OF Johns Hopkins University. Balti- 

 more: Newell Martin, M. D., F. R. S., 

 and W. K. Brooss, editors. Vol. iii, 

 Nos. 1 to 4. Pp. 216, with Twelve 

 Plates. Price per volume, $5. The 

 price of single numbers varies with the 

 size. 



These studies, issued from time to time, 

 contain the majority of the original scien- 

 tific papers published by members of the Bi- 

 ological Department of the University. They 

 will be grouped into volumes of about five 

 hundred pages each. The numbers before 

 us contain eleven papers, giving accounts of 

 special researches into various facts of spe- 

 cial structure and function. Among the 

 papers of most general interest are those 

 of Mr. W. H. Howell, on " The Origin of 

 the Fibrin formed in the Coagulation of 

 Blood," and of Mr. H. G. Beyer, " On the 

 Action of Carbolic Acid, Atropia, and Con- 

 vallaria on the Heart, with some Observa- 

 tions on the Influence of Oxygenated and 

 Non-oxygenated Blood, and of Blood in 

 Various Degrees of Dilution," both of which 

 are in No. 2. 



The Louisiana Purchase in its Influ- 

 ence upon the American System. By 

 the Right Reverend C. F. Robertson, 

 D. D. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Pp. 42. Price, 50 cents. 



This paper, by the Protestant Episcopal 

 Bishop of Missouri, belongs to the scries of 

 the American Historical Association. The 

 subject, as the author reviews it briefly, be- 

 comes a very broad one — much larger, prob- 

 ably, than most readers are at the begin- 

 ning ready to suppose it to be. In the first 

 place, the purchase was acknowledged to 

 be extra-constitutional, but then no one, in 

 Congress or out of it, could say anything 

 about that matter while it was under settle- 

 ment, for fear of giving France a pretext 

 for withdrawing from the bargain. The 



