CURRENT LITERATURE. 
MINOR NOTICES. 
LIEFERUNGEN 190-192 of Engler and Prantl’s Pflanzenfamilien have 
recently been published. They are devoted to a continuation of the Poly- 
podiacez by L. Diels.—C. R. B. 
THE PAPERS of botanical interest printed in abstract or in full in the 
Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science for 1898 (published 1899) 
are as the following. THomAS: Some desmids of Crawfordsville; MOTTIER: 
Nuclear division in vegetative cells; The centrosome in cells of the gameto- 
phyte of Marchantia; Endosperm haustoria in Lz/ium candidum ; RISLEY: 
Absorption of water by decorticated stems; ARTHUR: Indiana plant rusts, 
listed in accordance with latest nomenclature; SNYDER: The Uredinew of 
Madison and Noble counties, with additional specimens from Tippecanoe 
county; GOLDEN: Asfergillus oryz@,; CurTIss: A red mold; OLIVE: Affi- 
nities of the Mycetozoa; CUNNINGHAM: Morphological characters of the 
scales of Cuscuta; CouLTER: Notes on the germination and seedlings of 
certain native plants; BRANNON: Some Indiana mildews.—C. R. B. 
STATISTICAL methods have come into greater prominence « see 
study during recent years. Dr. Charles B. Davenport has prepared a use ; 
little handbook,* in which, after some preliminary definitions, he sets at 
the proper methods of measuring and counting organisms, of 
plotting of data, describes the constants of plotted curves and probable 
in their determination, and enumerates the classes of plotted curves: | 
chapter is devoted to correlated variability and the methods of peers: 
the degree of correlation and heredity. Galton’s, Pearson’s and Dunc 
methods of determining the coefficient of correlation are given. ae 7 
rules, and ten tables useful for the various calculations make up the 
the handy volume. , r 
A short chapter on the applications of statistical biological study ee 
remark. That these methods are of great value for a study of pasion ; 
heredity admits of no doubt. That they will improve our rege toe 
species and varieties is not at all clear. That “by the use 0° | 
method biology will pass from the field of the speculative sciences name 
the exact sciences” is surely a vain hope. We shall see the ai ical 
*DAveENporT, C. B.: Statistical methods with special reference M og 
variation. I2mo. pp. viiit-148, figs. 28. New York: John Wiley and 
$1.25. : [ NOVEMBER 
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