LITERARY NOTICES. 



709 



the country as sugar maples ; and, second, to 

 a detailed botanical description of the winter 

 appearance of the several species of maple 5 

 giving the characters of bark, color, etc., of 

 twigs, buds, and other marks apparent in 

 winter by which the species may be distin- 

 guished at that season. The leaves, seeding, 

 and buds of several of the varieties are fur- 

 ther illustrated hi engravings. 



The report of The Peabody Museum of 

 American Archceology and Ethnology repre- 

 sents that during the absence of Curator 

 Putnam as chief of the Department of Eth- 

 nology at the Chicago Exposition the work 

 of the museum was continued without inter- 

 ruption. Much progress was made in the 

 arrangement of collections in the new halls, 

 one of which is devoted to the objects gath- 

 ered by the several expeditions to Yucatan 

 and Honduras during the past five years. 

 The expedition of 1892-'93 was prematurely 

 terminated on account of the death of its 

 chief, Mr. Owens, and the placing of another 

 expedition is delayed. A memoir on Indian 

 Music, by Miss Fletcher, published as No. 5 

 of the museum papers, is the result of twelve 

 years' study, and contains the words and 

 music of nearly one hundred songs of war, 

 friendship, love, and ceremonial, with a sci- 

 entific study of the structure of Indian music. 

 The museum's exhibit at Chicago was of the 

 most satisfactory character. 



The Chemical Publishing Company, Eas- 

 ton, Pa., are publishing in monthly numbers, 

 to be of 48 pages each, Principles and Prac- 

 tice of Agricultural A nalysis, by Dr. H. W. 

 Wiley. The work will be issued in two vol- 

 umes, of which the first, in ten numbers, 

 comprising nearly five hundred pages, will 

 contain a description of the origin of soil 

 and fertilizers, and the method of their ex- 

 amination ; and the second will be devoted 

 to the best approved methods of analyzing 

 agricultural products^ An attempt will be 

 made to condense all the material into twen- 

 ty-four numbers ; but if this can not be done, 

 a third volume will be published. The price 

 of the work will be 25 cents a number. Pub- 

 lication began in January, 1894. 



Natural Novitates Natural History News 

 is the name of a semimonthly publication 

 giving a bibliographical list of current liter- 

 ature of all nations in natural history and 

 the exact sciences, published by R. Fried- 



lander & Son, Berlin, N. W., Carlstrasse, 11, 

 at 25 cents a number. All titles entered are 

 numbered consecutively from 1 up. 



A Laboratory Manual of 90 pages, con- 

 sisting of a course of experiments in organic 

 chemistry, by W. R Orndorff, assistant Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry at Cornell University 

 (D. C. Heath & Co., 40 cents), is arranged to 

 accompany Remsen's Organic Chemistry. It 

 contains a commendatory preface by Remsen. 

 Each experiment is followed by a series of 

 questions and a blank sheet for notes. 



Under the simple title Guide to the Study 

 of Common Plants, Prof. Volney M, Spald- 

 ing has published a thoroughly practical 

 manual of laboratory study in botany (Heath, 

 85 cents). The author supports fully and 

 freely the modern doctrine that a knowledge 

 of things should be gained through studying 

 the things themselves rather than what some 

 one has written about them. The book is 

 adapted to classes in high schools and simi- 

 lar institutions. The pupils are assumed to 

 have parts of plants before them at every 

 lesson, and the exercises consist of directions 

 for examining this material so as to learn 

 what it has to teach. Seven chapters are 

 given to the several principal parts of flow- 

 ering plants, after which the chief botanical 

 families represented among common plants 

 are studied in succession. Full directions 

 for study, lists of material, apparatus, and 

 reference books are given, and there is 

 some practical counsel for student and for 

 teacher. 



The plan of the recently issued Treatise 

 on Hydrostatics, by Prof. Alfred G. Green- 

 lull, of Woolwich (Macmillan, $1.90), is to 

 develop the subject from the outset by means 

 of illustrations of existing problems. In this 

 way the author hopes that the student will 

 acquire a real working knowledge of the sub- 

 ject, while at the same time the book will 

 prove useful to the practical engineer. Par- 

 ticular attention has been given to the appli- 

 cations of the subject in naval architecture. 

 With regard to details it may be mentioned 

 that the condensed notation of units pro- 

 posed by M. Hospitalier at the International 

 Congress of Electricians of 1891 has been 

 employed, and in the mathematical processes 

 a free use has been made of the symbols and 

 operations of the calculus. In support of the 

 latter policy the author quotes the saying 



