314 NATURAL SCIENCE. APRIL, 1893. 
Few, even of the professional gardeners, will have any idea of the 
wealth and variety to be found in this group of plants. Iris, for 
instance, has no fewer than 161 species, Crocus has 66 species, Ixia 
24, and Gladiolus as many as 132. Plants of this order have, 
usually, such large and showy flowers, and many of them cross so 
freely, that they are particularly adapted for experiments on cross- 
fertilisation. For this reason, as well as for their beauty, we should 
like to see the group more fully represented in our gardens and green- 
houses. Mr. Baker’s ‘“‘ Handbook,” we may observe, is in English. 
The author gives, besides the technical descriptions and habitat, full 
references to the earlier authorities, and, in the case of rare forms, he 
mentions the original discoverer. 
THosE who work upon the Tertiary Fossils of the United States will 
be gratified to hear that Dr. W. H. Dall has successfully grappled 
with the difficult task of determining the dates of publication of 
Conrad’s books—‘‘ The Fossils of the Tertiary Formation” and the 
‘* Medial Tertiary.” These books were issued in separate parts, all 
of which are now exceedingly scarce. Dr. Dall has given in his 
paper (Bull. Phil. Soc. Washington, vol. xii., 1893, pp. 215-240) full 
and exact descriptions of these separate parts and their contents, 
and has thus rendered a service to conchologists, after an amount of 
labour known to few. The paper gives an excellent idea of the 
difficulties met with in determining and establishing an exact nomen- 
clature when dealing with publications the dates and history of which 
are involved and obscure. The author hopes to be able shortly to 
reprint both of Conrad’s works. Mr. G. D. Harris, of the Smithsonian 
Institution, is publishing a reprint of ‘‘ Fossil Shells of the Tertiary 
Formations,” at three dollars a copy, and invites subscriptions. 
We have received the first fascicule of Fernand Priem’s “ La 
Terre” (Balliére, Paris), a book which deals with Seas and Conti- 
nents, Physical Geography, Geology, and Mineralogy. This is, of 
course, a more or less popular account of the subjects mentioned, but 
the numerous and excellent engravings, which appear to be chiefly 
taken from photographs, make it an exceptionally useful book for the 
student. It will be completed in four parts, at two francs fifty 
centimes each, and will contain 700 figures. 
SENHOR Cazurro concludes his elaborate study of the actinian 
Anemonia sulcata in the third part of volume xxi. of the Anales Soc. 
Espan. Hist. Nat. The structure of this form is worked out in the 
most elaborate detail, and important light has thus been thrown on 
the group. In the same number, Westerland prints a ‘“‘ Faunula 
Molluscorum Hispalensis,” and Girard a paper on ‘‘ Céphalopodes 
des cétes de l’Espagne.”’ 
