472 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



carried on in the Museum with a view of ascertaining the natural 

 limits of the Faunae at the present time and in past ages, and the 

 genetic relations which may exist between the order of succession of 

 organized beings upon the earth, their mode of growth, and their 

 metamorphoses during their embryonic life, and the plan and 

 complication of their structure in their adult condition. 



" The means for publishing this work have been most liberally 

 granted by the Legislature, at a time when, in a less enlightened 

 assembly, the material cares of the community would have engaged 

 their exclusive attention." J. w. D. 



Embryology of the Starfish. By Alexander Agassiz. 

 Seaside Studies in Natural History. By Elizabeth C. 

 and A. Agassiz. 



These are new products of the teeming workshop of Zoology 

 established under Professor Agassiz at Cambridge. While the 

 great zoologist is himself exploring in Brazil, these works have 

 been issued by his son and by Mrs. Agassiz. The first mentioned 

 is an elaborate account of the remarkable changes through which 

 two of our commonest American star fishes, Asteracanthion palli- 

 das Ag., and A. berylinus Ag., pass in their progress to maturity. 

 In some respects it forms a supplement to the investigations of 

 Mtiller and other European naturalists on the Embryology of 

 Echinoderms; but it elucidates several points which had been 

 left in obscurity ; and it fully vindicates the claim of the echino- 

 derms to be placed in the great Cuvierian group of radiates, in op- 

 position to the preposterous attempt to place them with the worms, 

 which has lately gained currency in some quarters. Every one 

 interested in these questions should carefully study this work, 

 which will constitute a part of the forthcoming volume fifth of 

 Agassiz's " contributions." 



The second work above named is a popular sea side book, giving 

 an excellent and very interesting summary of the marine radiates 

 of Massachusetts Bay. Most of the species referred to are found 

 also on the shore of Maine and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so 

 that the work will form a good companion and guide for visitors 

 to those coasts as well as to Massachusetts. The book is well 

 illustrated, and is at once thoroughly popular and accurate in a 

 scientific point of view. J. w. d. 



