Geology and Natural History. 87 



among the great collections of the world, and this fact makes the 

 catalogue, carefully prepared and annotated by Dr. Huntington, 

 of great and general interest. 



18. A Chapter in the History of Meteorites, by the late Walter 

 Flight. 223 pp. 8vo, with seven plates. London, 1887 (Dulau 

 & Co.). — This volume is for the most part a republication of 

 papers by Dr. Flight, giving a digest of a large number of 

 memoirs on meteorites since 1868. It is thus a continuation of 

 the works of Buchner and Rammelsberg, and to the student of the 

 subject and to the collector it is of high value. It is to be hoped 

 that it may be widely distributed not only for the sake of making 

 its author better known who was so early arrested in his active 

 scientific life, but also because the proceeds are to go to increase the 

 amount of the Plight Fund, which is being raised for the benefit 

 of his family. 



19. Das pflanzenphysiologische Pralctikum; by Professor Det- 

 mer of Jena. Jena, 1888, 8vo, pp. 352. — Vegetable Physiology 

 takes its appliances for research from Chemistry and Physics. 

 Many of the special methods of using these appliances with the 

 least expenditure of time and labor, and with the greatest cer- 

 tainty of securing trustworthy results, were brought together in 

 a useful handbook long since out of print, namely Sachs' Experi- 

 mental-Physiologie der Pflanzen. Since the date of that work, 

 1865, many new methods have been introduced, and new fields 

 of investigation have been opened. It seems, therefore, quite 

 time that some compendious and yet convenient treatise should 

 be available to teachers and students, in which modern methods 

 of experimental research in this interesting department should be 

 clearly described. 



By the lectures by Sachs and by Pfeffer, and by the small 

 treatise by Bretfeld, a student is placed in possession of refer- 

 ences to the memoirs o-iving details of researches in the different 

 parts of the subject, but there does not appear to be any single 

 handbook for laboratory practice which covers the ground of the 

 present work. The subject is divided into the two parts, (l) 

 Nutrition, (2) Growth and Movements. As might be naturally 

 expected the author has given some description of what he 

 regards the most desirable single method for investigating each 

 minor point, but in many instances the methods are merely de- 

 scribed without critical examination of their, merits or faults. Per- 

 haps this, on the whole, is all the better for any student who might 

 be led thereby to distrust a method until he had for himself ex- 

 amined rival methods not here referred to, but it would be all 

 the worse for any student who should confine himself to the sin- 

 gle methods here detailed. The latter course would inevitably 

 lead to superficiality. But in the hands of a judicious teacher 

 the treatise can be made of great assistance. 



One of the charms of Strasburger's " Practicum," consists in 

 the almost colloquial minuteness with which all possible difficul- 

 ties are explained, to the student of histology ; the present trea- 



