1893. 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; Paleontology (Vertebrate), by R. Lydekker; Palzon- 
tology (Invertebrate), by J. W. Gregory. Then comes a section on 
Palzobotany, by T. Hick, in which the whole of the prolific litera- 
ture published during the year on fossil plants is ignored, except 
afew 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 NiyHorr, of the Hague, has just issued a ‘Catalogue 
de Livres sur les Possessions Néerlandaises aux Indes Orientales et 
Occidentales sur l’Empire Indo-Britannique, les Possessions 
Espagnoles, Frangaises, Portugaises, la Chine et le Japon,1]’ Australie.” 
The catalogue is arranged under headings, and will be of assistance 
to those interested in these countries. Pp. 280. 
Tue Administrator’s Annual Report of British New Guinea from ist Fuly, 
1891, to 30th Fune, 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 g 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, z.e., by Mr. More- 
ton on his unsuccessful Expedition from Philipps Harbour towards 
