Recent Literature. 1097 
a manner as to bring out the fact that the plant’s food is a solution 
consisting essentially of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sul- 
phur and phosphorus. Destructive metabolism, respiration, and 
reproduction follow, each including a brief summary of the prin- 
cipal facts, 
In the main, the book appears to be brought up to our present 
knowledge, and, if one must use such a book at all, it may be rec- 
ommended as giving in a condensed and systematic form the prin- 
cipal facts of Vegetable Morphology and Physiology. It remains 
to be said that, while the book bears the name of the American 
publisher on its title-page, both printing and binding were done by 
a London house, a new title-page alone having been pasted in to | 
replace the original one.— Charles E. Bessey. 
MIcroscopicAL PHysioGRAPHY OF THE Rock-MAKING MIN- 
ERALS. By H. Rosenbusch. Translated by Joseph P. Iddings. 
New York: Wiley & Sons, 1888. Illustrated by 121 wood-cuts. 
and 26 plates of photomicrographs. xiii. and 333 pp.—With the 
excellent translation of Prof. Rosenbusch’s book, presented us by 
Mx. Iddings, there can no longer remain an excuse for the continued 
neglect of microscopical petrography by our colleges and advanced 
schools. . Heretofore the immense mass of facts relating to the 
microscopical properties of minerals which have accumulated within 
the past ten or fifteen years, have been beyond the reach of those 
who are not familiar with the German language. The excellent 
compendium of Prof. Rosenbusch has not been available to English- 
speaking students on either side of the Atlantic. It is a matter for 
congratulation that the first translation of this book should have 
been made into English by an American Scientist, and by one who 
has proven himself so capable of undertaking the task as has Mr. 
The translation is at the same time an abridgement. The six 
hundred and sixty-four pages of the original have been reduced by 
the translator to three hundred and thirty-three. This has been 
accomplished by omitting the bibliography (which occupies eighty- 
eight pages in the original), by excluding the purely historical 
Portions, and by restricting within narrow limits the discussion of 
the anomalous action of certain minerals in polarized light. Since 
these matters would be of little value to any but the advanced 
student in the subject, and since such a one must of necessity go to 
the original sources for his information, Mr. Iddings has done well 
in deciding not to confuse the mind of the beginner with too much 
of the unessential. So far as a hurried reading of the book allows 
One to judge, everything essential to the study of the optical prop- 
erties of the rock-forming minerals has been retained, and in many 
cases additions have been made to the description of those minerals 
