48 The American Naturalist. [January, 
The plan of the work is excellent and in the main it is well worked 
out. The sequence followed is that of Hackel in Engler and Prantl’s 
Naturalichen Pflanzenfamilien. The characterization of each division 
and tribe is full and apparently well drawn, and under these the de- 
scriptions of genera and species are equally well made. Occasionally 
one notices a little redundancy of words, but this is a fault which will 
displease very few. We are so accustomed to short and insufficient de- 
scriptions that it is quite gratifying to find descriptions in which there 
is something to spare. To a large extent these descriptions are new, 
at least the book is not a mere compilation of scattered descriptions. 
The student will find here, for the first time, descriptions of all our 
grasses, 809 native and 103 exotic species. The author has attempted 
to illustrate nearly every genus, and he has succeeded so well that of 
146 genera, 126 are figured. Some of these figures are crude, and the 
lettering in some is cruder still, but taken as a whole, they are helpful, 
while many are very well done. 
We notice with pleasure that the nomenclature is in accordance 
with the “ Rochester-Madison Rules,” and, contrary to what some 
have feared, the changes in well known names are not many. The 
synonomy is full, but has not been as carefully collected as it should 
have been, due probably to the employment of clerical help. We 
notice with regret also that the range of many species of the Plains 
has not been acurately given, although authentic lists, and even her- 
baria, could have readily been consulted. These errors of omission 
and commission are, however, not so great as to be seriously harmful, 
and they can easily be corrected in a second edition. As it is, the 
work will be very useful, and American botanists are deeply indebted 
to the author, for completing this laborious task—Cuar.es E. BES- 
SEY. 
Brush’s Determinative Mineralogy and Blowpipe Analy- | 
sis.’—This most valuable text-book on blowpipe analysis, with tables — 
for the determination of Mineral species by blowpipe methods has long ~ 
been the standard text used in our colleges. The first part (Blowpipe : 
Analysis) has now been entirely rewritten and enlarged from 62 to — 
163 pages. The valuable tables which were based on von Kobell’s 
Tafeln zur Bestimmung der Mineralien are now in process of revision — 
for a later edition of the work. As these tables comprise but 33 a 
double pages against 163 pages of the text devoted to blowpipe analy- 
2 Fourteenth Edition, Revised and Enlarged, by Prof. S. L. Penfield. Wiley, 4 
$3.50. 
