320 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Oct. 



Mr. J. J. Hicks' Catalogue.— Mr. Hicks, of Hatton 

 Garden, is well-known as a maker both of microscopes and 

 objectives, and his catalogue therefore scarcely requires 

 detailed notice. We may mention what appears to be a 

 comparatively new model in bis "Histological" microscope, 

 which is fitted with rack-work coarse adjustment and mi- 

 crometer-screw fine adjustment, stage with the Nelson 

 type of horse-shoe opening, swinging understage fitment 

 for condenser, and claw-shaped stand. It is sold at a price 

 that brings it well within the reach of students. — Set. Gossip. 



The North American Slime Moulds. — Thomas H. Mac- 

 bride, Professor of Botany in the University of Iowa. Mac- 

 millan Company, New York, 1899, 8vo., 231 pp., 18 plates, 

 $2.25. This is a list of the Myxomycetes with technical 

 description of each. The material described has been 

 brought together in the university herbarium by aid of bot- 

 anist from Alaska to Panama. The descriptions conform 

 to European authorities a list of which is given in the pre- 

 face. Schrader in 1797 first separated the slime moulds 

 from the other fungi into a separate family. Fries in 1829 

 made a valuable summary of all then known but the mi- 

 croscopical technique of his time did not suffice for dis- 

 crimating delicate forms. Spore measurement and micro- 

 scopic details were brought out first by Dr. De Bary, 1859, 

 and Rostafinski, 1873. A myxomycete is a chlorophyl-less 

 organism whose vegetative phase consists of a naked mass 

 of multinuclear protoplasm called plasmodium ; repro- 

 duced by spores which are either free or more commonly 

 enclosed in sporangia, and which on germinating produce 

 ciliated or amoeboid zoospores, whose coalescence gives 

 rise to the plasmodium. 



MICROSCOPICAL NOTES. 



Slides. — For the benefit of amateurs who find difficulty 

 in obtaining good objects at a moderate rate, I offer first 

 class slides, at cost price (3d. each). Material, lists, and 

 information free. Dealers not supplied. Frank P. Smith, 

 15, Cloudesley Place, Islington, London, N. 



