iS93. SOME NEW BOOKS. 391 



this annual. One section or chapter may be all that it ought to be, 

 and may give a good outline of the year's advance in some branch 

 of science ; but the next section is treated quite differently, and 

 leaves us in entire ignorance of the advances made, except in some 

 small field specially cultivated by the author. 



As examples of good outlines we may mention the Mineralogy 

 and Petrology, by G. T. Prior; Stratigraphical Geology, by H. B. 

 Woodward ; Palaeontology (Vertebrate), by R. Lydekker ; Palaeon- 

 tology (Invertebrate), by J. W. Gregory. Then comes a section on 

 Palaeobotany, by T. Hick, in which the whole of the prohfic litera- 

 ture published during the year on fossil plants is ignored, except 

 a few species from the Coal-measures, and a single Alga from the 

 Permian. To this author the whole Tertiary and Secondary flora is 

 non-existent ! 



The sections on Physical Geology and Geography, by H. G. 

 Seeley ; and Anthropology, by H. G. Seeley, are very imperfect. 

 Biology (Animal), divided into several sections, and treated of by 

 C. H. Fowler, C. S. Sherrington, R. I. Pocock, and R. Lydekker is 

 much better. 



Biology (Botanical) is divided between W. B. Hemsley, who 

 takes Systematic and Geographical Botany; G. Massee, who writes 

 Morphology and Biology of Plants ; D. H. Scott, who treats of 

 the Minute Anatomy of Plants; and F. E. Weiss, who abstracts 

 the literature on the Physiology of Plants. But in some unaccoun- 

 table way all these botanical writers have forgotten to mention 

 Lubbock's large monograph on Seedlings ! Each probably thought 

 that it would be in another section, and so it was missed altogether. 



M. Martinus Nijhoff, of the Hague, has just issued a "Catalogue 

 de Livres sur les Possessions Neerlandaises aux Indes Orientales et 

 Occidentales sur I'Empire Indo-Britannique, les Possessions 

 Espagnoles, Fran9aises, Portugaises.la Chine et le Japon,rAustralie." 

 The catalogue is arranged under headings, and will be of assistance 

 to those interested in these countries. Pp. 280. 



The Administrator's Annual Report of British New Guinea from 1st Jnl)\ 

 1891, to ^oih June, 1892, has just been issued as a Blue-book by the 

 Colony of Queensland. The affairs of the Possession are reviewed 

 under the separate heads of Legislation, Administration of Justice, 

 Administrative Visits of Inspection, Government Property and 

 Works, Establishments, Meteorology, Trade, Mission Work, Lands, 

 Prisons, Finance, Native Dialects, Scientific Contributions, and 

 Reports by Officers. It contains 113 pages of text and 9 maps. No 

 one can read this official document without being impressed with the 

 extraordinary amount of information it contains of the highest 

 scientific value. This young colony is more favoured than most 

 in having an officer in charge who is not only a highly efficient 

 Administrator, keenly alive to all the best interests of the natives, 

 but a man possessed of an unusually wide range of attainments. 

 Under the head of Administrative Visits of Inspection, the dispatches 

 contain an amount of geographical, geological, zoological, anthropo- 

 logical, and linguistic data, collected chiefly by the Administrator 

 himself, of unusually high value. The Report contains also sub-reports 

 by officers specially commissioned for the purpose, i.e., by Mr. More- 

 ton on his unsuccessful Expedition from Philipps Harbour towards 



