466 
by Mr, R. J. H. Gibson and Miss Helen Auld, 
The editor announces twenty-five other mem- 
oirs in course of preparation. 
The present little yolume, which may be taken 
as asample of the series, opens with a brief 
introduction containing a definition of the 
order Aleyonaria, and then follow sections on 
the general appearance of a colony of Alcyonium 
digitatum, its reproduction, the anatomy of the 
colony, the anatomy of the polyps, the develop- 
ment of the colony and finally its physiology. 
Three plates containing twenty-four figures 
complete the little volume, which consists of 
but twenty-two octavo pages and is sold for the 
modest sum of eighteenpence, 
It is almost needless to say that a descrip- 
tion of Alcyonium by Professor Hickson is well 
done, and if the remaining volumes prove as 
satisfactory as the present one, the editor is to 
be congratulated upon the initiation of so ad- 
mirable and useful a series. It would seem 
that the zoologists of this country might prof- 
itably undertake a similar series of memoirs 
and the idea may be commended to the atten- 
tion of the officers of the Marine Biological 
Laboratory. J. P. MoM. 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 
. In the January-February number of the 
Journal of Geology, Frank Dawson Adams gives 
an account of ‘The Excursion to the Pyrenees 
in Connection with the Highteenth Interna- 
tional Geological Congress.’ The interest 
centers largely around certain rocks supposed 
by Lecroix and some other eminent French 
geologists to illustrate the transformation of 
limestone into diorite and of shales into gneiss 
and granite by emanation accompanying gra- 
nitic intrusions. ~- Professor Adams does not 
regard the case as proved and suggests, 
among other things, chemical analysis as a 
means of testing the hypothesis. O. C. Far- 
rington contributes a discussion of ‘The 
Structure of Meteorites.’ They are treated 
under three classes, iron, iron-stone and stone 
meteorites. Structures of the monogenic me- 
teorites are discussed crystallographically 
those of the polygenic according to their mode 
of aggregation. In a paper entitled ‘The 
Problem of the Monticuliporoidea,’ F. W, 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. XIII. No. 325. 
Sardeson discusses these much neglected al- 
though important organisms of the Paleozoic 
faunas. Unlike many of the recent writers, 
he has considered them as corals rather than 
as bryozoans, and several of the commoner 
forms are described in such detail as to greatly 
assist students beginning the investigation of 
these fossils. ‘ Valleys of Solution in Northern 
Arkansas’ are discussed by A. H. Purdue. 
They are described as steep and bilaterally 
symmetrical, with remarkable straightness, 
due, no doubt, to their connection with joint- 
ing planes, 
The Botanical Gazette for February contains 
the first of two papers by Dr. H. C. Cowles 
upon ‘The Physiographic Ecology of Chicago 
and Vicinity; a study of the origin, develop- 
ment and classification of the plant societies.’ 
Dr. Cowles gives his views on the classification 
of plant societies, and proposes a method based 
on the laws of physiography. The general 
principles outlined in full have been noted al- 
ready in ScreENcE (Vol. XII., p. 708, Novy. 
9, 1900), and are here worked out in con- 
nection with the Chicago area. The plant 
societies are grouped in five genetic series, the 
first of which, that on rivers, is presented 
in the first instalment. The paper is illus- 
trated by half-tone reproductions which show 
the various stages in the development of river- 
plant societies, from the ravine with its me- 
ophytic slopes, through the xerophytic bluffs 
stages, and culminating in the mesophytic for- 
est of the flood plain which -is regarded as 
the climax phase of regional development, 
Mr. John Donnell Smith, publishes his 22nd 
paper on ‘Undescribed Plants from Guate- 
mala and other Central American Republics,’ 
describing about thirty new species from this 
exceedingly prolific region. Miss Mary H. 
Smith, of Cornell University, publishes an 
account of some experiments which would 
indicate that nitrates are a source of nitrogen 
for saprophytic fungi, Carlton E. Preston, of 
Harvard University, publishes a second note on 
non-sexual propagation in Opuntia, Various 
book reviews, minor notices, notes for stu- 
dents, and news items complete the num- 
ber. 
