The American Naturalist 



[.I»nuar 



man and nature and economic products. The appendices include one 

 on meteorological instruments, methods, etc., one on maps and one con- 

 taining suggestions to teachers. The last is a list of questions on the 

 text. At the end of each chapter is a list of reference books, with 

 their titles and prices. This is not of much value to the student, but 

 is convenient for the teacher. A list of articles to be found in Nature, 

 Science, the Popular Science Monthly, and similar periodicals might 

 have been of more value in an elementary treatise. However, the 

 plan of referring students to original articles on the subjects discussed 

 is commendable. We can not dismiss the book without another reference 

 to the many really excellent illustrations and charts it contains. The 

 former are, without exception, fresh and new, well chosen to illustrate 

 the author's points and well executed from the bookmaker's standpoint. 

 Many of the charts are original. The volume is, on the whole, the 

 most attractive that we have seen on the subject it treats, and its attract- 

 iveness is not at the expense of scientific accuracy. We can safely 

 predict a general adoption of the book as a text in many high schools 

 and academies, and we shall be mistaken if it is not used in some of 

 our colleges, where the instructor desires an aid in his work rather 

 than a substitute for work.— W. S. B. 



Gray's Synoptical Flora of North America.— In 1835 or 

 1836, Dr. John Torrey planned a Flora of North America, with which 

 Dr. Gray soon became identified, and, in July, 1838, the first part 

 (Ranunculacese to Caryophyllacese) was published; a little later 

 (October, of the same year), the second part appeared, and in June, 

 1840, the third and fourth parts were issued, completing Vol I the 

 Polypetal*. As will be remembered, Volume II was not completed, a 

 portion appearing in 1841, and the work being suspended at the end'of 

 the Composite in 1843 (February). Here the work stopped for many 

 years, and was resumed in 1878 by Dr. Gray (Dr. Torrey having died 

 five years earlier) under the slightly different title of A Synoptical 

 Flora of North America. In this volume the Gamopetalse were com- 

 pleted; in 1884, the Composite and preceding families, since whose 

 elaboration more than forty years had passed, were revived. Then 

 shortly afterwards, 1888, came the death of Dr. Gray, followed, in 

 1892, by the death of Dr. Watson, before the publication of other 



In October, 1895, Dr. B. L. Robinson issued the first fascicle of the 

 revisionfof Vol. I of the Flora, a little more than fifty-seven years since 

 the appearance of the corresponding fascicle. This" includes the poly- 

 petalous^families— Ranunculacese to Frank en iacea?. It includes much 



