428 Scientific Intelligence. 
ator, Dept. of Geology. 65 pp. with plates. Chicago, 1895.—This 
Handbook, which forms No. 1, of volume I, of the Geological 
Series of publications by the Field Columbian Museum of 
Chicago, gives a catalogue of the remarkable collection of 
meteorites which the museum has already acquired. This 
includes 180 falls or finds aggregating in weight 4,721 pounds. 
Conspicuous among the rest are two specimens from Kiowa 
County, Kansas, weighing 466 and 345 pounds; a large mass 
with several hundred smaller fragments from Phillips County, 
Kansas, aggregating 1,1844 pounds; also two masses from Cafon 
Diablo, Arizona, weighing 1,013 and 256 pounds. Besides the 
catalogue proper, Mr. Farrington has given in the introduction an 
interesting popular summary of the subject, while a series of six 
excellent plates show the external appearance and structure of 
typical specimens of the different types. 
UII. Borany. 
1. Synoptical Flora of North America, Vol. I.—Part 1, fasci- 
cle 1, Polypetale from the Ranunculacez to the Frankeniacex, 
by Asa Gray, LL.D., and SERENo Watson, Pu.D., continued 
and edited by B. L. Rogsrnson, Pu.D., Curator of the Gray Her- 
barium of Harvard University. Issued Oct. 10,1895. It is well- 
known that the Synoptical Flora was undertaken by the late 
Professor Gray as a revision of the early work issued by him and 
Dr. Torrey, in 1838 to 1843. For reasons which need not be now 
alluded to, Professor Gray decided to begin the publication of 
his revision with certain Gamopetalee, and this work appeared in 
1884, with a second issue in 1886. Other orders of Gamopetale 
and the Apetalz were entrusted to his assiduous collaborator, the 
late Sereno Watson, while he himself turned back to those orders 
of Polypetale which stand first in linear sequence. In the inves- 
tigation of these orders he was engaged when struck down by 
death. Dr. Watson then carried on the double task of proceed- 
ing with the later orders and revising some of the Polypetale 
_ which Professor Gray had left untouched in his review. With 
this work he was busy in his last days. After his death, in 1892, 
the fragmentary notes were committed to the present Curator of 
the Gray Herbarium, who has embodied in his revision the results 
of his extensive studies of old and of recent material. He prom- 
ises a second fascicle at an early day: this will include the remain- 
ing Polypetalous orders as far as the Leguminose. He has the 
assurance of aid from various specialists who are to revise certain 
orders. 
The two hundred pages which we have now before us constitute 
a composite publication in which the parts are well co-ordinated 
by skillful and exact editing. The contributions of each of the 
authors are properly credited, and the proportions are excellently 
kept. In nomenclature, Dr. Robinson has adhered to the prac- 
tice adopted by his predecessors in the work, following, as he 
