842 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 309. 



under the same latitudes, while favored by 

 the low elevation of the country, ia less ad- 

 vantageously situated in that it does not 

 usually receive the greatest possible force of 

 the sun's rays during the hottest weeks of 

 summer. 



2. Soil. — The soil preferred by the 

 great majority of Austro- riparian plants 

 which are met with in the mountains, 

 especially those of our first category, 

 which are assumed to be of neo-tropical 

 origin, is light, sandy and poor in organic 

 matter ; consequeutlj' readilj' permeable to 

 water and becoming quickly and strongly 

 heated. It is very similar to the soils 

 which cover a great part of the Coastal 

 Plain. In a substratum of this character, 

 whether on the lower slopes or in the river 

 bottoms, we invariably find established the 

 larger colonies of Lower Austral species. 

 In consonance with their environment, 

 most of them are xerophytic or hemi- 

 xerophytic in structure, as is the case with 

 a great portion of the vegetation of the 

 coastwise pine-barrens. 



On the heavier and consequently colder 

 and wetter soils, and on slope exposures 

 other than southern, the flora is always of 

 predominately Transition character, at the 

 same elevation or even, in places, descend- 

 ing to lower altitudes than are often reached 

 on the opposite slope by Carolinian and 

 Austro-riparian forms. 



Unfortunately no investigations have yet 

 been made in this mountain region which 

 afford us exact data as to the amount of 

 isolation received by plants growing in the 

 situations described ; nor have we the 

 measurements of soil temperature which 

 are necessary to the further prosecution of 

 the present inquiry. A comparative study 

 of this question in various parts of the Ap- 

 palachian region and of the Coastal Plain, 

 coupled with an investigation of the ecology 

 of the vegetation along anatomical-physi- 

 ological lines, would beyond all doubt yield 



results of the greatest interest and value. 

 It is earnestly hoped that such an inves- 

 tigation can be undertaken in the nea 

 future. 



Thos. H. Kbabney, Jb. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Gauss and the non-Euclidean Geometry. Cakl 



Friedrich Gauss Wbrke. Band VIII. 



Gottingen. 1900. 4to. Pp. 458. 



We are so accustomed to the German profes- 

 sor who does, we hardly expect the German 

 professor who does not. 



Such, however, was Sobering of Gottingen, 

 who so long held possession of the papers left 

 by Gauss. 



Scberiug had planned and promised to pub- 

 lish a supplementary volume, but never did, 

 and only left behind him at his death certain 

 preparatory attempts thereto, consisting chiefly 

 of excerpts copied from the manuscripts and let- 

 ters left by Gauss. Meantime these papers for 

 all these years were kept secret and even the 

 learned denied all access to them. 



Schering dead, his work has been quickly 

 and ably done, and here we have a stately 

 quarto of matter supplemental to the first three 

 volumes, and to the fourth volume with excep- 

 tion of the geodetic part. 



Of chief interest for us is the geometric por- 

 tion, pp. 159-452, edited by just the right man, 

 Professor Staeckel of Kiel. 



One of the very greatest discoveries in mathe- 

 matics since ever the world began is, beyond 

 peradventure, the non-Euclidean geometry. 



By whom was this given to the world in 

 print? 



By a Hungarian, John Bolyai, who made the 

 discovery in 1823, and by a Russian, Lobach6v- 

 ski, who had made the discovery by 1826. 



Were either of these men prompted, helped, 

 or incited by Gauss, or by any suggestion ema- 

 nating from Gauss ? 



No, quite the contrary. 



Our warrant for saying this with final and 

 overwhelming authority is this very eighth vol- 

 ume of Gauss's works, just now at last put in 

 evidence, published to the world. 



The geometric part opens, p. 159, with 



