How is the Cambrian divided ? 505 
the term radicle is still applied to the caulicle of the embryo; the 
obsolete term spongioles, is given a definite value ; while on p. 163 
we are left to infer that soda is present only in marine plants. No 
doubt these mistakes will be eliminated from the next edition 
Though hardly adapted to the requirements of a college, the book 
will dorbtless serve a very useful purpose, and we are certainly dis- 
posed to give it a welcome, as promising evidence of zealous work 
by a lady. 
P; 
Gray’s Scrpntiric Parnrs.'—The most important of recent botani- 
cal publications, and one which will be received with the greatest 
favor wherever botanical research is prosecuted, is the collection of 
scientific papers by Dr. Gray, recently issued in a most attractive 
form, under the editorship of Prof. Sargent. The present issue 
embraces two volumes, a third to follow, as we may infer from a 
statement in the preface. 
The voluminous character of Dr. Gray’s writings is well known 
to botanical students, but, as the editor correctly deserves, “ The 
number of his contributions to science and their variety is remark- 
able, and astonishes his associates even, familiar as they were with 
his remarkable intellectual activity, his various attainments, and 
that surprising industry which neither assured position, the weari- 
ness of advancing years, nor the hopelessness of the task he had 
imposed upon himself ever diminished.” There will, therefore, be 
a well nigh universal feeling of regret for the necessity which com- 
pelled exclusion of “a number of papers of nearly as great interest 
and value as those which are chosen.” 
The writings are grouped in four divisions, according to the par- 
ticular subjects dealt with. ‘The first in importance contains his 
contributions to descriptive botany. These, with few exceptions 
were devoted to the flora of North America, and although it did not 
fall to his lot, as it did to that of some of his contemporaries, to 
elaborate any one of the great families of plants, the extent and 
character of his contributions to sympathetic botany will place his 
name among that of the masters of the science. 
“His works, of a purely educational character, are only second in 
importance to his writings on the flora of North America ; and 
their influence upon the development of botanical knowledge in 
this country, during the half century which elapsed between the 
publication of the first and the last of the series, has been great and 
must Jong be felt. No text-books of science surpass them in the 
‘Scientific papers of Asa Gray, selected by Charles i hae Sar- 
gent; Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889. 2 vols, 8vo., pp. 397 and 498. 
