﻿Geology and Natural History. 79 



on the first page of this first number of his Palaaontological Con- 

 tributions, after alluding to the difficulties in the way of publication 

 of papers requiring illustrations, announces that to make himself 

 independent, he proposes to establish a series of private publica- 

 tions, under the above title, to appear as material demands it. 

 He expresses his indebtedness to Mr. G. K. Greene of New Albany, 

 Indiana, for his generous financial aid with reference to the number 

 now published. Paleontologists and others may aid his enterprise 

 and the science by subscribing for the Journal. This first number 

 contains a valuable paper by Mr. Ulrich, consisting of descriptions 

 of New Silurian and Devonian Fossils (Corals, Mollusca, etc.), 

 which is illustrated by three excellent plates. 



8. Class-book of Geology; by Archibald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.. 

 516 pp. 12 mo., illustrated with woodcuts. London, 1886, 

 (Macmillan & Co., N. Y.)— In this "Class-book of Geology" Dr. 

 Geikie presents the science in a simple and readable form, for the 

 benefit especially of young students in the department, and also 

 for the general public. The operations going on over the globe 

 are explained by various examples and then applied to the illus- 

 tration of the events in geological history. From an- account 

 of the action of water in rivers and oceans and their results, 

 the work passes to the subject of volcanoes; then devotes many 

 pages to minerals and rocks ; and afterward treats of stratifica- 

 tion, volcanic eruptions, mineral veins, fossils, and the general 

 system of progress through the geological periods. The illustra- 

 tions are good, and in part from the note-book of the able 

 author. 



9. Ancient Herbaria. Histoire des Herbiers, par le Dr. Saint- 

 Lager. Paris, Bailliere et fils, 1885, pp. 120, 8vo. — The author 

 of this treatise shows us that only in the seventeenth century did 

 the word herbarium acquire its present meaning, that of a col- 

 lection of pressed specimens of herbage and flowers, prepared for 

 botanical uses. The Herbarius of the Romans was the herb- 

 collector. Herbarium down through the sixteenth century was 

 the common name of a Historia Plantarum or other botanical 

 treatise. Next it came to mean a collection of simples y a sort of 

 museum of the actual herbs, roots, fruits, etc., used in medicine 

 or the arts. Sprengel, in his Historia Rei Herbaria?, in telling of 

 the botanic garden which Brassavola established on an island of- 

 the Po near Ferrara, adds " herbarium ipse collegat ditissimum." 

 But the collection was one of simples, as is well known from con- 

 temporary evidence, not of botanical specimens. These came 

 after the botanic garden, naturally, and the first recorded name of 

 such a collection is by Adrien Spiegel (Spigelius), in 1606 — that 

 of Hortus hiemalis. When plants are all dead in winter, he says, 

 the only resource is to botanize in horti hiernales, that is, in books 

 filled with dried specimens stuck fast to the leaves. Hortus siccus 

 soon came to be the name, lasting down to our days. But Tour- 

 nefort brought in the now prevalent name before 1700, defining 

 it thus : " Herbarium sive hortum siccum appellant collectionem 



