e 
No. 384.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 965 
ter, Contributions to the flora of Indiana, No. 5, and Experiments in 
germination of composites ; Cunningham, The Ericacez of Indiana, 
and Indiana’s Gentianacez ; Wright, Inarching of trees, and Notes on 
the cypress swamps of Knox County. 
As President of the Michigan Academy of Science, Prof. V. M. 
Spalding delivered, some months since, an address on A Natural 
History Survey of Michigan, which has been issued in pamphlet form. 
His plea for the organization of such a survey is timely, and the 
results being reached in Wisconsin should make success reasonably 
certain if it were organized in the proper manner. 
PETROGRAPHY AND MINERALOGY. 
A New Edition of Dana’s Mineralogy.'— The latest edition of 
Dana’s Zext-Bovk of Mineralogy is practically a new book. It is 
unquestionably the best text-book of modern mineralogy that has 
appeared. In its general make-up it resembles very closely the 
earlier editions of the book bearing the same title, but in its contents 
it varies widely from these. The entire book has been rewritten, 
and all of its parts have been brought quite up to date. 
“ In the chapter on crystallography, the different types of crystal 
forms are described under the now accepted thirty-two groups, classed 
according to their symmetry. The names given to these groups are 
based, so far as possible, upon the characteristic form of each, and 
are intended also to suggest the terms formerly applied in accordance 
with the principles of hemihedrism. The order adopted is that which 
alone seems suited to the demands of the elementary student, the 
special and mathematically simple groups of the isometric system 
being described first ” (from author’s preface). The discussion of 
crystallographic symmetry is remarkably simple. It should be clear 
to any student. 
The section devoted to the explanation of the general principles of 
optics, and of the optical characters of minerals, is particularly wel- 
come in an English text-book. All of the most important optical 
principles are expounded, the optical characteristics of the different 
crystal systems explained, and the methods used in determining their 
1 Dana, E. S. A Text-Book of Mineralogy, with an extended Treatise on Crys- 
tallography and Physical Mineralogy. New edition, entirely rewritten and en- 
larged. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1898. 
