Miscellaneous Intelligence. 165 



a brief description of cryptogams, the book is almost entirely 

 devoted to flowering plants, and the subjects treated are taken 

 up in the following order: the seed, germination and growth, the 

 root, the stem, buds and branches, the leaf, the flower, fruits, the 

 response of the plant to its surroundings. Practical questions 

 are interspersed throughout, and considerable attention is given to 

 topics of economic importance. The illustrations are profuse and 

 well selected. a. w. e. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the Year ending June SO, 1911. Pp. 91. Washington, 1911. — 

 The Smithsonian Institution is so remarkably efficient, not only 

 in its general activity, but also in the variety of spheres in which 

 it works, that the annual report of the Secretary, Dr. Charles D. 

 Walcott, always contains much that is of general interest. One 

 point to be noted is that a sum of $40,000 has been bequeathed 

 to the Institution by George W. Poore, of Lowell, Massachusetts, 

 who died in December, 1910. The income is to be added to the 

 principal until a total of $250,000 has been reached, when the 

 income of the fund so established is to be used for the purposes 

 for which the Institution was created. This clearly indicates an 

 appreciation on the part of the public of the work which the 

 Smithsonian is doing, and gives reason to hope for further 

 bequests in the future. A trust fund, yielding an income of 

 $12,000, was earlier established by Mrs. E. H. Harriman, to be 

 devoted particularly to the study of. American mammals and 

 other animals. Of the special explorations and researches is to 

 be mentioned, first, the remarkable work of the Secretary, at the 

 trilobite locality on the slope of Mt. Stephen, near the Canadian 

 Pacific Railroad. The exhaustive biological survey of the 

 Panama Canal zone is now established on a solid basis, through 

 the contribution of funds from outside. The Rainey expedition 

 in Africa, the bird studies in the Aleutian Islands in the Behring 

 Sea, and the anthropological researches of Dr. Hrdlicka in Peru, 

 are other lines along which the work of the Institution has been 

 extended. 



As regards publications, some 200,000 copies of various issues 

 have been distributed through the past year, while the Depart- 

 ment of International Exchanges has handled some 229,000 pack- 

 ages, weighing 561,000 pounds. The structural work on the new 

 National Museum was completed on June 20, 1911, just six years 

 after the excavations for the foundations were commenced. The 

 collections have been largely removed to the new building and 

 reinstalled, while 200,000 specimens of animals and plants have 

 been added. 



The work of the Astrophysical Observatory, under Mr. C. G. 

 Abbot, is detailed in Appendix V, from which the following 



