1881.] : Recent Literature. 45 
cez are separated from the Conifere as a distinct order, including 
Torreya, with one species, 7: californica, and Taxus, represented 
by Z: érevifolia. The Coniferz, proper, include eleven genera and 
thirty-four species. Of the latter, at least, sixteen exceed one hun- 
dred feet in height, and no less than eleven of these reach or 
exceed the height of two hundred feet. The Abietinez are de- 
scribed by Dr. Engelmann, and the arrangement is consequently 
the most recent. Instead of the old genus Abies, as we all learned 
it in Gray’s Manual, we have Abies, Pseudotsuga, Tsuga, and 
Picea. Under Pinus there are fourteen species. 
In the Monocotyledons, the Orchidacee are not numerous. 
This is, however, not the case with the Liliacez, represented by 
thirty-one genera. Many of the genera are rich in species, ¢. £., 
Allium with twenty-three; Brodiza with fourteen; Lilium with 
eight ; Fritillaria, eight; Calochortus, twenty-one. Three palms 
are described as occurring in the southern part of the State, viz: 
Washingtonia filifera, Erythea edulis and E. armata. The sedges 
and grasses, the latter by Dr. Thurber, occupy more than one 
hundred pages of the volume. Nearly one hundred more pages 
are filled with descriptions of the vascular Acrogens (by Prof, 
Eaton), and the cellular Acrogens (Musci and Sphagnacee only). 
Fifty pages of “additions and corrections,” mostly to Vol. 1, an 
excellent index, a glossary, and a “ List of persons who have made 
botanical collections in California,” by Prof. Brewer, complete this 
volume. The authors (Brewer, Watson and Gray, for Vol. 1, and 
Watson, for Vol. 11) are to be congratulated upon the successful 
completion of this great work, and the liberal-handed business 
men of the Golden State are to be commended for their public 
spirit in furnishing the means for its publication after the Legisla- 
ture had refused to do so. No other State is now provided with 
so excellent a work upon its native plants.—C. £. B. 
BALBIANI’s LECTURES ON THE GENERATION OF VERTEBRATES.|— 
- This work corresponds in some degree to that of Kolliker on 
the development of man and the higher animals, but is confined 
rather to the earliest stages of development, and particularly to 
the mode of formation of the egg and the male reproductive ele- 
ments, subjects now occupying very closely the attention of 
observers in the different countries of Europe, while unfortu- 
nately our own land does not contain in its population of 
50,000,000, so far as we are aware, a single person who is studying 
the points regarding early vertebrate development in an original 
way. Should there be any one desirous of examining into the 
subject, he would find the volume before us, although a little 
passé in some points recently worked out by E. Van Beneden, 
McLeod, Balfour, and probably several biologists in Germany, 
1 Lecons sur la Génération des Vertébris. Par G. BALBIANI. Recueillies par le 
F. HENNEGUY, Revues par le Professeur. Avec 150 figures intercalées dans le 
R 
texte et 6 planches en chromo-lithographie hors texte. Paris, O. Doin, 1879. 
