1879. | Recent Literature. ` 385 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
WEBSTER’S ANNELIDS OF THE VIRGINIAN CoAst.—The worms 
of the coasts of North America have been sadly neglected by 
American naturalists. The annelid fauna of New England has 
been pretty thoroughly examined by Prof. A. E. Verrill, but with 
this exception, a few scattered descriptions. by Stimpson and 
eidy, and one or two others, comprise the whole apg of 
the subject. We have in Prof. H. E. Webster’s Annelida Chæto- 
poda of the Virginian coast, a valuable contribution as ‘ae litera- 
ture of this group.. In this pamphlet of seventy-two pages the 
author has enumerated fifty-nine species, representing forty-nine 
genera and twenty-three families, of which twenty-seven species 
and four genera (Lepidameitria, Aricida, Cabira and Phronia) are 
new work is illustrated by eleven lithographic plates in 
which the author’s individuality has been preserved.— F. S. K. 
Rut.ey’s Stupy oF Rocxks.!—This little work gives a very fair 
idea of lithology, as it is taught upon the European continent at 
the present time. It is for the English reading student the best 
and almost only source from which he can obtain an idea of 
modern lithology outside of the very few schools in which the 
subject i is taught; Von Cotta’s “ Rocks Classified and Described ” 
aving been antiquated long before it was publishe 
r. Rutley’s book bears marked evidence that its author 
“crammed ” for the occasion, and shows, if anything, less origin- 
ality than his published papers. Yet in spite of this “ cramming” 
he seems to be ignorant even of the lithological literature of his 
own isle. It is to be wee as the work of a tyro, and not 
that of a master, like many of our ordinary text-books. The 
work is recommended to the American student because it is the 
only thing of its kind to be had, and hence is necessary to any 
student who cannot read German. 
ome of its defects are the lack of any mention of Des 
Cloizeaux's method of determining the feldspars, or of Pumpelly’s 
ingenious modification of it; of Str reng’s method of distinguish- 
ing nephelite from apatite, or of the monoclinic character of the 
micas as shown by Tschermak. 
On page 179 the remarkable statement is made that the feld- 
Spars are the “principal rounded crystals in vitredus rocks.” 
His vitreous rocks are removed from the rocks of which they are 
the glassy modifications; his trachytes range from sixty to 
eighty per cent. of silica, ‘including both the rhyolites and the 
greater portion of the andesites; cherzolite and dunite are 
removed from their natural position; in fact, his classification is 
about as much without form and void as he could well make it. 
In describing the e A Baio (167), he, as well as the Ger- 
‘The Study of Rocks, An Elementary Text book of Petrology. By FRANK 
= RUTLEY. Hi M. Geological Survey. New York, 1879. D. Appleton & Co. 
