July 20, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



81 



clay, stone or metal (gold and copper orna- 

 ments only). The great majority of the clay 

 vessels were evidently intended for mortuary 

 purposes only. They testify to a ' highly 

 elaborated technique and cultivated taste,' but 

 do not include any types that come up to the 

 best there is in Chiriqui ceramics. 



Two types of ornamentation are particularly 

 noticeable: (1) Incised geometric designs; and 

 (2) punctate knobs resembling raised tattoo 

 marks, or scarifications. The author observes 

 ' that certain classes of ornament seem to have 

 been allotted to certain classes of vessels.' 



The ancient Guetares of Costa Rica seem to 

 have excelled in the manufacture of large 

 multicolored bowls, a number of which have 

 been reproduced in color, thus adding attract- 

 iveness to what even without them would be 

 a superb series of plates. 



This large quarto volume is published at the 

 sole expense of Mr. Ake Sjogren, who has also 

 given the collection on a part of which the 

 work is based, to the Royal Ethnological Mu- 

 seum in Stockholm. 



George Grant MacCurdy. 



Yatje University Museum, 

 New Haven, Conn. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Botanical Gazette for June contains the 

 following papers: K. M. Wiegand publishes 

 an account of his researches on the conditions 

 of buds and twigs in winter, his obsei-vations 

 leading to many conclusions entirely in vari- 

 ance with accepted notions. S. Yamanouchi 

 publishes a preliminary account of his investi- 

 gation of the cytology of Polysiphonia vio- 

 lacea, showing definitely the alternation of 

 generations. H. F. Weiss describes in detail 

 the structure and development of the bark in 

 sassafras. E. J. Hill gives an account of the 

 distribution and habits of the common oaks 

 of the Lake region. 



We learn from The Botanical Gazette that 

 a new journal, bearing the title Annales de 

 Biologic Lacustre, is to be published under 

 the editorship of Dr. Ernest Rousseau, with 

 the cooperation of a large board of editors. 

 The first fascicle is announced to contain 192 

 pages, with figures and maps. Publication is 



to be in German, English, French and Italian. 

 Each volume will contain 400 to 500 pages, 

 and the subscription price will be twenty to 

 thirty francs. The address of the editor is 

 Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle, rue Vau- 

 tier, 31, Brussels. 



Science Progress, published from 1894 to 

 1898 under the editorship of Professor Bret- 

 land Farmer and the general direction of Sir 

 Henry Burdett, has been revived under the 

 name Science Progress in the Twentieth Cen- 

 tury. The editors are Dr. N. H. Alcock, lec- 

 turer on physiology at St. Mary's Hospital 

 Medical School, and Mr. W. G. Freeman, F.R.S. 

 The journal is published quarterly by Mr. 

 John Murray. The contents of the first num- 

 ber are as follows: *A Science of Commerce 

 and some Prolegomena,' by W. J. Ashley; 

 ' Chloroform a Poison,' by B. J. Collingwood, 

 'Physical Geography as an Educational Sub- 

 ject,' by J. E. Marr; 'On the Occurrence of 

 Prussic Acid and its Derivatives in Plants,' 

 by T. A. Henry; 'The Solvent Action of 

 Roots upon the Soil Particles,' by A. D, Hall; 

 ' Some Notable Instances of the Distribution 

 of Injurious Insects by Artificial Means,' by 

 Fred. V. Theobald; 'The Blood-Platelets,' by 

 G. A. Buckmaster; 'Some Recent Progress 

 in Chemical and Structural Crystallography,' 

 by A. E. H. Tutton; 'The Geological Plans 

 of some Australian Mining Fields,' by J. W. 

 Gregory; 'The Corn Smuts and their Propa- 

 gation,' by T, Johnson; ' Nehemiah Grew and 

 the Study of Plant Anatomy,' by Agnes Rob- 

 ertson ;. and 'The Utilization of Proteids in 

 the Animal,' by F. G. Hopkins. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



DE VRIES AND HIS CRITICS. 



The followers of Darwin in the early sixties 

 had two difficult tasks to accomplish. One 

 was to induce people to give tiie theory of 

 natural selection an unbiased consideration; 

 the other, and more difficult one, was to get 

 them to understand it. 



" I have often found the most extraordinary 

 difficulty," wrote Darwin to Carpenter,^ " in 

 making able men understand at what I was 



"Life and Letters,' Vol. IL, p. 18. 



