296 Recent Literature. [ May, 
wild plants and the cultivation of the useful ones. The second part bears 
the date 1875 and is more special in its nature, being in fact a popular 
flora of Scandinavia. The volumes are interesting throughout. We 
shall hope to transfer to our General Notes some of Professor Schiibeler’s 
statements respecting the remarkable climate of Norway, and the occur- 
rence of Southern plants near the Arctic circle. 
BOTANISCHER JAHRESBERICHT.! — Annual Report on Botany, by Dr. 
Just, of Carlsruhe. The second year of this valuable compendium is an 
improvement on the first. The several departments of botany are con- 
ducted by different men, chiefly specialists, and in a careful manner. The 
` articles which have appeared in the journals, and proceedings of societies, 
are given in abstract. Besides these there are very good critiques of the 
botanical books for the year (1874). The Year-Book is of great value 
to all botanists who wish to keep up with the published researches, and 
who have not time to study all the journals. It must be said, moreover, 
that the range of periodicals from which Dr. Just and his associates have 
selected their notes is very wide, comprising many chemical and agricult- 
ural journals, which are not likely ordinarily to fall in a botanist’s way- 
Technologists and chemists have had their annuals for several years, and 
it is high time that botanists should fare as well. Botanists ought to con- 
gratulate themselves that the task has fallen into such good hands, and 
they should see to it that the enterprise is sustained. 
KNEELAND’s AMERICAN IN IcELAND.?— This little book, issued about 
the same time as Judge Caton’s Summer in Norway, affords fresh evi- 
dence that American tourists are taking more interest than formerly in 
Northern Europe, particularly the Scandinavian peninsula and the isl- 
ands to the westward, the homes of the Northmen. Dr. Kneeland’s 
book is an intelligent and by no means dull account of Iceland, preceded 
by pleasant sketches of the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands, as 
seen during a voyage of a few weeks in 1874, the year of the thousandth 
anniversary of the settlement of Iceland by the Northmen. 
Our readers will examine with much interest the chapter on me 
Physical Characters of Iceland, in which the author adopts the view 
that Iceland was uplifted towards the end of the glacial epoch, and that 
this explains the traces of a milder climate in Greenland before the ad- 
vent of man. At present the geographical position of Iceland is there- 
fore very important, as “with Jan Meyen and Spitzbergen it forms a 
natural barrier against the desolation of Northern Europe by the 10è 
from Arctic regions; should Iceland disappear beneath the waters, Nor- 
1 Berlin: Gebrüder Bornträger, 1875, 1876. With 
2 An American in Iceland. An Account of its Scenery, People, and History. "7 
a Description of its Millennial Celebration in August, 1874; with Notes pak 
Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands, and the Great Eruption of 1874. By Sa™ & 
Kweetanp. With Map and Nineteen Illustrations. Boston: Lockwood, Brooks, 
Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 326. 
