322 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Sept. 



Scheibler and Nittelmaier's statement that melibiose is 

 completely split up by the continued action of invertin. 

 The experiments were therefore repeated, and it was 

 found that even largfe amounts of very active invertin had 

 no action on melibiose. — Experiment Station Record. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



The Primary Factors of Organic Evolution, By E. D. 

 Cope, Ph. D. — The present book is an attempt to select 

 from the mass of facts accumulated by biolog'ists, those 

 which, in the author's opinion, throw a clear lig-ht on the 

 problem of org-anic evolution, and especially that of the 

 animal king-dom. As the actual lines of descent can be fin- 

 ally demonstrated chiefly from paleontologic research he 

 has drawn a larg-e part of the evidence from this source. 

 Of course, the restriction imposed by limited space has 

 compelled the omission of a great many facts which have 

 an important bearing on the problem. He has preferred 

 the paleontologic evidence for another reason. Darwin 

 and the writers of his immediate school have drawn most 

 of their evidence from facts which are embraced in the 

 science of oecology. Weismann and writers of his type 

 draw most of their evidence from the science of embryol- 

 ogy. The mass of facts recently brought to light in the 

 field of paleontology, especially in the United States, re- 

 mained to be presented, and the evidence they contain in- 

 terwoven with that derived from the sources mentioned. 

 If the present work has any merit, it is derived from the 

 fact that the basis of the argument is the paleontolog"ic 

 record. 



An Illustrated Flora. — Chas. Scribner's sons. New 

 York, have just published the Illustrated Flora of the 

 Northern States and Canada, westward to the 102d meri- 

 dian, including Kansas and Nebraska, by Prof. N. L. Brit- 

 ton of Columbia University, N. Y., and Hon. Addison 

 Brown, with the assistance of specialists in various groups. 

 Volume 1, neatly bound in cloth, containing 612 pages. 

 Royal 8 Vo. illustrated with 1425 uncolored figured 

 species is sold for $3.00. Vols II and III completing the 

 work will appear during- 1897. 



