802 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vov. XXXII. 
not sparingly employed, are of the best. The single plate thus far 
published is well executed, but to an American eye the prominence 
accorded the name of the publishers savors rather too much of an 
advertisement. The journal is, however, on the whole one of which 
both the founder and the scientific world may well be proud, and for 
which all will join in wishing that abundant success for the future 
which the present numbers promise. Hensy Bo Wann: 
The Weigert Methods. 
New York State Hospital’s Bulletin for October, 1897, a report upon 
a series of experiments with the Weigert staining methods. The author 
has in contemplation a study of the components of the cranial nerves 
in bony fishes, and as this rests largely on the myelination of the 
nerves, a careful study of the Weigert methods has preceded it. 
The results, satisfactory as well as unsatisfactory, are given for the 
different fixing reagents, mordants, etc., and form a body of valuable 
suggestions for those who propose applying these methods to the 
lower vertebrates. 
BOTANY. 
Britton and Brown’s Flora.!— As a rule, large undertakings 
proceed slowly, and although Professor Britton’s friends had known 
for some years that he was at work on a new manual of the general 
region covered by the familiar work of Dr. Gray, most of them were 
surprised when confronted with the first volume of the book in 1896. 
The prompt appearance of the second volume, and the publication 
of the third and concluding volume within less than two years from 
the appearance of the first, are no less surprising than was the early 
commencement of the work, and its industrious authors are to be 
congratulated on their energy and the perfection of their plans. 
It was a happy thought, that of placing not only a description but 
a figure of each species in the hands of students at a price not too 
high for the rather cramped purse of the average botanist, and doing 
1 An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British 
AEE p Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of 
inia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the rozd Meridian. By 
che a PE Britton, Ph.D., and Hon. Addison Brown. In three volumes. 
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. Vol. iii, Apocynaceæ to Composite, 1898, 
4°, pp. xiv + 588, many figures in the text. 
