Geology and Mineralogy. 175 



ously in Europe. This result may perhaps depend primarily on 

 the national virtue vaunted by Matthew Arnold, that " in matters 

 within their range most Americans see straight and see clear," 

 but is doubtless influenced also by an altruistic sentiment acting 

 to help forward the cause of education and of national well-being 

 such as was illustrated very remarkably long ago by the career 

 of Noah Webster as set forth by Horace Scudder in his biogra- 

 phy. The fact that such books are usually written without any 

 hope of pecuniary gain throws them in a sense into the category 

 of scientific memoirs and imparts a note of eclecticism, open- 

 mindedness and fair-mindedness not to be looked for in the 

 ordinary productions of Grub St. The book of Mr. Rolfe is 

 noteworthy as a successful effort to elucidate and explain to 

 beginners and even to the intelligent workman a form of scien- 

 tific apparatus which is not infrequently held to be innately 

 complex and difficult of comprehension. He has done this simply 

 and clearly, and his descriptions cannot fail to be understood by 

 all persons occupied with the business of testing and manufac- 

 turing sugars. The book will be appreciated also by those 

 chemists and students of chemistry who wish to keep in touch 

 with the progress of knowledge in the great field of saccharine 

 matters and the related carbohydrates. p. h. s. 



II. Geology and Mineralogy. 



1. Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United States (Second 

 Paper) ; by Lester F. Ward, with the collaboration of William 

 M. Fontaine, Arthur Bibbins, and G. R. Wieland. Part I, 

 Text, 616 pp. ; Part II, Plates I-CXIX. Monograph XLVIII, 

 IT. S. Geol. Survey. (Washington, 1905.) — The extensive and 

 sumptuously illustrated work before us forms the seventh paleo- 

 botany monograph published by the United States Geological 

 Survey. It, however, more immediately follows Part II of the 

 1 9th annual report, On the Cretaceous Formations of the Black 

 Hills as indicated by the Fossil Plants, and Part II of the 20th 

 annual report, On the Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United 

 States, — both of which are of monographic proportions. The 

 monographs of the survey solely on fossil plants are therefore 

 now virtually ten in number. 



The subjects of Monograph XLVIII, being mostly in continua- 

 tion of previous work, occupy a wide range, chiefly as follows : 

 The older Mesozoic of Arizona ; the Jurassic of Oregon with the 

 description of numerous ferns and many handsome cycad and 

 ginkgo leaves with other conifers ; various minor Jurassic-Cre- 

 taceous florae from Cape Lisburne, Alaska, from Montana, and 

 from California; the description of many additional cycadean 

 trunks from the Freezout Hills of Carbon County, Wyoming, to 

 the illustration of which 18 handsome plates are devoted ; the 

 flora of the Shasta formation of California and Oregon; further 

 plants from the Kootanie of Montana, and the Lakota of South 



