776 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S, Vol. II. No. 49. 



JBryopsis and Botrydium, where it is very com- 

 monly placed and put into the heterogeneous 

 assemblage of the Protococcaese. We also notice 

 that the animal-like Cerafium- and Noctiluca- 

 forms find a place near them although of very 

 doubtful affinities. 



The Diatoms are placed by themselves as 

 they well deserve to be, and even their super- 

 ficial resemblance to the Desmids can hardly 

 save them ft-om the suspicion that their affini- 

 ties are with organisms other than the un- 

 doubted seaweeds. 



The Eed Seaweeds are without question the 

 most difficult and complicated group, not only 

 in vegetative structure, but even more so in the 

 details of the sexual reproduction. Mr. Mur- 

 ray's chapter was evidently written before 

 Wille's paper announcing the discovery of the 

 fusion of the two sexual nuclei had been pub- 

 lished. 



Schmitz's classification, based upon the vari- 

 ation in the development of the carpospores 

 after the fertilization of the ' carpogonmm,' has 

 been followed, and this part will make accessible 

 to the student an excellent account of Schmitz's 

 system in a very convenient form. 



The account of the Blue-green Seaweeds occu- 

 pies the closing chapter of the book, and this is 

 perhaps the least satisfactory part. The very 

 interesting matter of the cell structure is very 

 slightly touched upon, and the relationships be- 

 tween this group and other groups of organisms 

 is barely hinted at. Considering the lack of 

 general information about this group, even the 

 comparative morphology might have received 

 more attention. 



It is pleasant to see that the author has not 

 followed, in this book, the terminology of Ben- 

 net and Murray's Crifptogamic Botany, but has 

 used such words as antheridia, carpogonium, 

 sporangium, and the like. The whole make-up 

 of the book is very pleasing, the illustrations in 

 the text are well selected and excellently re- 

 produced, and the colored plates, interesting 

 and valuable to the beginner for whom the book 

 is intended, while lacking absolute accuracy of 

 tint, are perhaps as good as the very low price 

 at which the volume is sold would allow. 



W. A. Setchell. 



■University of California. 



Korean Games, With Notes on the Corresponding 

 Games of China and Japan. By Stewaet 

 CuLiN, Director of the Museum of Archae- 

 ology, University of Pennsylvania. Philadel- 

 phia. 1895. 1 vol. Large 4to. Pp. 177. 

 This handsome volume is a monograph of 

 rare merit on a branch the importance of which 

 is but imperfectly appreciated even by some of 

 our most advanced ethnologists. 



The subject of games, especially the games of 

 children, has been generally regarded as be- 

 neath the dignity of real scientific treatment. 

 They have been indulgently regarded as trivial 

 pastimes, or, at best, as amusements only. 



A quite different presentment of their signifi- 

 cance is advanced in the work before us. The 

 author, drawing most of his information from 

 fresh and unpublished sources, describes ninety- 

 seven games played by the youth of Korea, or 

 by those of older years who retain the love of 

 festal occupations. Some of them sound quite 

 familiar, such as cards, chess, dominoes, dice, 

 backgammon and blind man's bu2"; others have 

 titles which seem remote from our experience 

 as ' five gateway's, ' ' clam-shell combat, ' ' water 

 kicking ' and ' corpse searching ! ' "When, how- 

 ever, we come to examine even these, we recog- 

 nize in most of them traits of familiar friends. 



The methods of playing are explained, the 

 terms employed are given in the Korean and 

 often in the Chinese and Japanese tongues as 

 well, and the position and costumes of the 

 players and their utensils are depicted in twenty- 

 two full-page colored plates by native artists 

 and in 135 text illustrations, many of these also 

 from native sources. 



This is the basis of the study, and along with 

 four elaborate indexes, one general and three 

 of names in the languages referred to, make up 

 the bulk of the volume. But the portion which 

 will deservedly attract the thoughtful student 

 beyond this is the Introduction, covering twenty 

 pages, in which the author sets forth with 

 singular lucidity the position which games 

 should hold in ethnologic investigation. This 

 is full of novel and original suggestions, the re- 

 sults not merely of the present monograph, but 

 of years of study of the games of the world. 



He claims, and one must concede with the 

 strongest evidence in his support, that games 



