1 882."] Recent Literature. ^31 



Anthropology and Dawkin's Early Man in Britain, and the late 

 Mr. L. H. Morgan's writings on the North American Indians. 



Underwood's Ferns. 1 — Last year the first edition of this book- 

 was noticed in the Naturalist. It is with great pleasure that we 

 welcome the new and much enlarged edition which has just come 

 to hand. It has been carefully revised and much new matter has 

 been added. As now published it includes the whole of the 

 Pteridophyta, that is, the so-called vascular cryptogams. Many 

 new paragraphs and a chapter or two are added to the text, and 

 considerable changes and additions have been made in the sys- 

 tematic portion. On pp. 34 and 35 the asexual and sexual gen- 

 erations are respectively called the Pte, doid and the Thalloid 

 phases, two most excellent expressions, which ought to be intro- 

 duced into usage in the books. On p. 53, in giving the names of 

 the seven divisions or sub-kingdoms of the vegetable kingdom, 

 the author, for the sake of uniformity, writes Zygospora, Oospora, 

 Carpospora, instead of Zygospores;, Oosporeae, Carposporeae, 

 which is an attempt in the right direction. The literature of the 

 Pteridophyta is greatly extended, and appears to be pretty full. 

 It is certainly a very valuable part of the book, as it includes, in 

 the case of American works, not only the books, but many papers 

 in periodicals, reports, etc. 



The arrangement of the orders of Pteridophytes followed, is as 

 follows : 



" II.— Fiiicin 1. Order, < >phi,ndo,saee.v, Marattiaeea and Filices. 

 " HI.— RHIZOCARPE^E. Order, Marsiliaceii- ami Salviniaceas. 



IV - — Lycopodin^k. Orders Lycopodiaceoe, Lepidodendrace.x\ S 

 Selaginellaceie and Isoetacese. 

 The important announcement is made, at the end of the vol- 

 ume, that the author has under preparation a Synopsis of the 

 Hepaticae on a plan similar to the work under review. We hope 

 that its appearance will not be long delayed, and trust that it will 

 prove to be as valuable a hand-book as has " Our Native Ferns." 

 — C E. B. 



Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hop- 

 kins University.— The second number of the second volume of 

 this valuable series is fully equal in interest to those which have 

 preceded it. While it contains some medico-biological and phys- 

 iological papers, the purelv zoological ones are the following : 

 List of Medusae found at Beaufort'. X. C, curing the summers of 

 1880 and 1 88 1, and a paper on the development of the ova in 

 Salpa, by W. K. Brooks; On the origin of the so-called "test 

 cells " m the ascidian ovum, by J. McMarrich ; Some notes on the 

 development of Arbacia MnutitLita, bv II. Garman and B. P. 



