Miscellaneous Intelligence. 483 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Letters of Asa Gray, edited by Jank Loring Gray. 

 2 vols., Svo. Boston and New York. is93. (Houghton, Mifflin 

 and Company). — This collection of letters illustrates Dr. Gray's 

 scientific career, and much of his home-life, from his first acquaint- 

 ance with Dr. Torrey, about 1831, down to November 27, 1887, 

 the last active day of his life. In respect to home-life, and among 

 his friends, they reveal the genial, kind, sympathetic, christian 

 gentleman, and in respect to his favorite science they show a con- 

 stantly widening view, from the time when he began to notice 

 the more interesting plants of Oneida county, onward through his 

 study of the flora of North America and his contributions to 

 general botany, through his broader studies of the relations of 

 botany to other sciences, until, his interest undiminished, and his 

 judgment clear, he suddenly rested from his labors. Many of the 

 letters written from 1860 for the next score of years are 

 to Mr. Darwin, or relate in some way to the investigations which 

 Mr. Darwin was making, or the theories he was advancing, and 

 would furnish good material for "The evolution of Darwinism," 

 were such a chapter to be written. Other letters contain a his- 

 tory of the " Flora of North America," almost from its beginning 

 in 1838, through the period when new plants were pouring in 

 from the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific States faster 

 than they could be classified, down to the days, when having com- 

 pleted the " Gamopetaleae " of the "Synoptical Flora," the aged 

 botanist was revising the earlier orders, although with the con- 

 fession that " I begin to doubt if I shall hold out to accomplish 

 much more." The last letter of all contains his final dictum on 

 nomenclature and the warning that " this business of determining 

 rightful names is not so simple and mechanical as to younger 

 botanists it seems to be, but is very full of pitfalls." The editing 

 of these Letters has been done most carefully and judiciously ; and 

 those who knew the kind and many-sided naturalist will only 

 wish that more of them had been printed. d. c. e. 



2. National Academy of Sciences. — The following is a list 

 of papers presented at the meeting of the National Academy, 

 held in Albany, Nov. 7-9 : 



Samuel H. Scudder: American Palaeozoic cockroaches. 



Seth C. Chandler: Additional researches on the motion of the Earth's pole. 



C. A. White: Biographical memoir of A. Fi. Worthen. 



C. B. Comstock: Biographical memoir of W. P. Trowbridge. 



James Hall: The geological map of the State of New York. The Palaeon- 

 tology of the State of Xew York : the present condition of the work. 



George L. Goodale: Certain Histological relations between the subalpine 

 Plants of the White Hills and of the Labrador coast. 



Charles S. Hastings: On a new form of telescopic objective, as applied to 

 the twelve-inch equatorial of the Dudley Observatory. 



Charles E. Beecijer : On the structure and development of Trilobites. 



Asaph Hall: Double stars 



Charles L. Doolittle : Latitude determinations at the Sayre Observatory. 



Joseph A. Lintner: Insect voices. 



