May 3, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



497' 



Since the book is only a year old, and 

 since its title is rather misleading, it may 

 not be out of place here to give a short ac- 

 count of it. Its strong point is that along 

 with the study of the morphology of the 

 seed, the root, the stem, the leaf, the flower, 

 the fi'uit, there is an excellent course of 

 physiological work indicated. Indeed, the 

 whole subject is discussed on the life side, 

 and. although in spite of its title, it is a 

 book adapted to the needs of rather ad- 

 vanced students, yet such a student could 

 easily adapt it to work even in primary 

 schools, according to the most modern peda- 

 gogical ideas. 



After the general discussion of the life 

 history of the plant, follows a similar work 

 with each of the natural group of flowering 

 plants, the Algte, Fungi, Mosses, Ferns, 

 Equiseta, and the Club mosses, conducted 

 on the same genaral plan. Then follow the 

 Pines, the Monocotj'ledons and the Di- 

 cotyledons, a special point being made of 

 the relationship of the orders to each other. 

 In this, as in the physiology, a thorough 

 knowledge of the latest thought on the 

 subject is shown, and more than this, the 

 knowledge is giveu to the student often in a 

 much more logical and understandable way 

 than by consulting the original sources. 



Altogether it is the best of the modern 

 text-books on the subject, both in matter 

 and method, and is admirably adapted for 

 use in colleges, either as a basis for advanced 

 work or to give the undergraduate a good 

 general knowledge of the subject. 



W. P. WiLSOX. 



University of Pexxsylvasia. 



XOTES AXD XE\rS. 

 FOSSIL VERTEBRATES OF ARGENTINA. 



We have recentlj^ received Part II. of the 

 Paleontolog'ta Argentina, forming a continua- 

 tion of the Anaki del Mmeo de la Plata, pub- 

 lished under the direction of Francisco P. 

 Moreno, Director of the Museum. This 



sumptuous Memoir in royal quarto size con- 

 sists of ' Contribniiong to a Knowledge of the 

 Foml Vertebrates of Argentina, by R. Lj'dek- 

 ker, in three parts covering the Dinosaurs 

 and Cetacea of Patagonia and the Ungulates 

 of the Argentine. The text is in English 

 and Spanish in parallel columns, and is ac- 

 companied by thirty-two large plates wliich 

 give us some conception of the superb col- 

 lection of fossils in this Museum. In the 

 fii-st section the author describes the Dino- 

 saurs from Patagonia belonging to Marsh's 

 division of Sauropoda, which have not 

 hitherto been described fi-om South America. 

 The agreement of some of these animals 

 with the North American Dinosaurs seems 

 to be strikingly close, so far as «in be judged 

 from Mr. Lydekker's description. The re- 

 mains, however, are not well preserved. 

 There are several plates principally illus- 

 trating the family Titanosauridse. The 

 Cetacea come from a marine deposit in the 

 Territory of Chubet, and embrace especially 

 three skulls which are far more complete 

 than any of their European congeners and 

 represent the Physodontida', Squalodon- 

 tidte, ArgjTOcetida? and Platanistidic. The 

 most important section of the Memoir, how- 

 ever, is that relating to the extinct ungu- 

 lates which are described from the superb 

 collection in the La Plata iluseum, belong- 

 ing to the aberrant Toxodontia and Litop- 

 terna, besides the typical Artiodactyla and 

 Perissodactyla. The author gives ii clear 

 and concise descrijition of the principal 

 characters of each family and of each genus, 

 and has sho^^'n considerable skill and great 

 clearness m matters of priority, for the con- 

 fusion in South American palseontological 

 literature and reduplication of terms is 

 second only to that which prevails in our 

 own country, and lias arisen from the simul- 

 taneous and independent publications of 

 Ameghino, Moreno and Mercerat. The 

 author has not gone into the labyrinthine 

 problems of specific prioritj', but has en- 



