SCIENCE 
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics; R. S. WoopwARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING, 
Astronomy; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THURSTON, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry; 
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; HENRY F. OsBoRN, Paleontology ; W. K. 
Brooks, C. HART MERRIAM, Zoology; S. H. ScupDER, Entomology; C. E. Brssry, N. L. 
BRITTON, Botany; C. S. Minot, Embryology, Histology; H. P. BowpitcH, Physiology; 
J. S. Brntines, Hygiene; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology; 
J. W. PowrE.L1;, Anthropology. 
Fripay, OcroBer 20, 1899. 
CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advancement of 
Science :— 
Report on Progress in Non-Euclidean Geometry : 
PROFESSOR GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED............ 545 
Section G, Botany: PROFESSOR W. A. KEL- 
SH RMUAN Gs vclcces aa stele teva ceaeu saben tiecaeepeedceseeecrs 557 
Sullivant Day: ELIZABETH G. BRITTON....... 567 
The British Association for the Advancement of 
Science :-— 
Section D (Zoology): PROFESSOR W. A. 
FEUER D MIAN cman ccttsneriieicsohscneseosoesececuek serecaeects 568 
The Diccism of the Fig in its Bearing upon Caprifi- 
cation: DR. WALTER T. SWINGLE............... 570 
Scientific Books :— 
Hicker’s Praxis und Theorie der Zellen- und 
Befruchtungslehre: E. B. W. Ganong’s The 
Teaching Botanist:. PROFESSOR FRANCIS E. 
LLOYD. Reye's Geometrie der Lage: PROFES- 
sor J.H. TANNER. Books Received............... 574 
Scientific Journals and Articles........10.:..ceeeeeeeeees 578 
. Societies and Academies :— 
Section of Biology of the New York Academy of 
Sciences: PROFESSOR FRANCIS E. LLOYD...... 578 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Perception of Horizontal and of Vertical 
Lines: PROFESSOR JOSEPH JASTROW............ 579 
The Third Princeton Expedition to Patagonia......... 580 
A Long Photographic Telescope: PROFESSOR Ep- 
WARD) ©! PICKERING)... ..csccescssctsccseseecseeeces se 581 
Scientific Notes and News... hbo 581 
University and Educational News.........2:0.1.0.e.000ee 583 
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Profes- 
sor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
REPORT ON PROGRESS IN NON-EUCLIDEAN 
GEOMETRY. 
Ir marks an epoch in the history of 
mathematics that at a meeting of a great 
Association for the advancement of science 
there should be presented by invitation a 
Report on non-Euclidean geometry. 
Its two creators, Lobachéyski, who mis- 
named it Imaginary Geometry, and Bolyai 
Janos, under the nobler name Science Ab- 
solute of Space, failed utterly while they 
lived, to win any appreciative attention for 
what is to-day justly honored as one of the 
profoundest advances of all time. The 
only recognition, the only praise of the 
achievement of Lobachévski ever printed 
in his lifetime was by Bolyai Farkas, the 
father of his brilliant young rival, and ap- 
peared in a little book with no author’s 
name on the title page, and which we have 
no evidence that Lobachévski ever saw, a 
little book so rare that my copy is probably 
the only one on the Western Continent. 
When after more than forty years they 
were rescued from oblivion by Baltzer 
and Hotel in 1866, still envious time 
gave them back only with an aspersion 
against the genuineness of their originality. 
A cruel legend tarnished still their fame so 
long delayed, so splendidly deserved. 
Even when their creation had reached 
the high dignity of being made the subject 
of courses of lectures for consecutive se- 
mesters at the University of Géttingen, yet 
