Botany and Zoology. 395 



which have recently come to hand. It is to be regretted that the 

 localities and the comparative frequency of occurrence are not 

 given for the flowering plants and the fungi, with the same degree 

 of fullness which we notice in the case of the lichens and the algae. 



G. L. G. 



6. Catalogue of the Flowering and Fern-like Plants growing 

 without cultivation in the vicinity of the Falls of Niagara; by 

 David F. Day, Troy, 1888, pp. 67. — This list was prepared at 

 the request of the Commissioners of the State Reservation at 

 Niagara. It contains besides the species discovered the names of 

 some plants which " may be expected to occur at the Falls," and 

 as the latter appear in the enumeration of the plants actually 

 occurring, they are liable to introduce an element of error into 

 comparisons of the numbers of species found within the limits of 

 the reservation with those given in other catalogues of plants of 

 like restricted areas. The introduction gives a short but interest- 

 ing account of early botanical exploration near Niagara, g. l. g. 



7. Journal of Morphology. — The second volume of this excel- 

 lent Journal was issued in August last. Its 176 pages are occu- 

 pied by elaborate papers on the Structure of the gustatory or- 

 gans of the Bat, by F. Tuckerman ; on the tritubercular molar in 

 human dentition, by E. D. Cope ; on the seat of formative and 

 regenerative energy, by C. O. Whitman; the internal structure of 

 the Amphibian brain, by Professor H. F. Osborn ; and studies on 

 the eye of Arthropods, by Wm. Patten. Mr. Whitmann closes 

 his paper with the following paragraphs, pp. 48 and 49. 



"The action of the formative power has often been likened to the 

 architectural power displayed in crystallization ; and if the essen- 

 tial distinctions are kept in view, such a comparison is justified by 

 one or two very instructive analogies. If the physicist is not 

 compelled to recognize a special crystallizing force, he is at least 

 unable to deny that a crystalline aggregate reacts upon the parts 

 in such a manner as to determine the direction of that marvellous 

 1 constructive power ' with which the molecules are endowed. 

 When we see a crystal reproduce its lost apex ; or, as in the oft- 

 cited experiment of Lavalle, an angle of an octahedral crystal 

 spontaneously replaced by a surface, as the result of an artificially 

 produced surface at the corresponding angle, we have no alterna- 

 tive but to infer a physical correlation of parts, under the influ- 

 ence of which the direction of forces is determined. So in the 

 development of a germ, in the repair of injured parts, and in the 

 regeneration of lost parts, the fact is irresistibly forced upon us, 

 that the organism as a whole controls the formative processes 

 going on in each part. The formative power then belongs only 

 to the organism as a physiological whole; and it does not repre- 

 sent a sum or aggregate of atomic, molecular, or other forces, but 

 results from special combinations of ultra-molecular units, and dis- 

 appears as such the moment the physiological connexus is de- 

 stroyed. 



" The idea may appear, at first sight, to stand in contradiction 



