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 catalog-ue therefore scarcely requires 

 detailed notice. We may mention what appears to be a 

 comparatively new model in his "Histolog"ical" microscope, 

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

 crometer-screw fine adjustment, stag-e with the Nelson 

 type of horse-shoe opening-, swing-ing- understag-e fitment 

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

 that bring-s it well within the reach of students. — Sd. 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 

 broug-ht tog^ether in the university herbarium by aid of bot- 

 anist from Alaska to Panama, The descriptions conform 

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

 face. Schrader in 1797 first separated the slime moulds 

 from the other f ung-i 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 broug-ht out first by Dr. De Bary, 1859, 

 and Rostafinski, 1873. A myxomycete is achlorophyl-less 

 org-anism whose veg-etative phase consists of a naked mass 

 of multinuclear protoplasm called plasmodium ; repro- 

 duced by spores which are either free or more commonly 

 enclosed in sporang-ia, and which on germinating- produce 

 ciliated or amoeboid zoospores, whose coalescence g-ives 

 rise to the plasmodium. , 



MICROSCOPICAL NOTES. 



Slides. — For the benefit of amateurs who find difficulty 

 in obtaining g-ood 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, Isling-ton, London, N. 



