780 Recent Literature. | August, 
of the peach, pear and apple, which vary so much in their hardi- 
ness? Every fruit grower in the Northern States knows well 
that certain varieties of these trees will endure the winter while 
others will not. This may not be due to any adaptation to cold, 
but it certainly does not admit of the simple explanation given 
by the learned author. There have certainly been variations in 
the hardiness of cultivated plants, and these variations have, by 
judicious selection, made it possible for us to extend very consid- 
erably the range of the species.—Charles E. Bessey. 
Our Living Wortp.—Under :this title Mr. Selmar Hess, of 
New York, is publishing in forty-two quarto numbers a popular | 
work on natural history, which will be welcomed by young peo- 
ple on account of the abundant and showy illustrations. 
The text is based on Rev. J. G. Wood’s, and is anecdotal rather 
than scientific ; it has been adapted for American readers by Dr. 
J. B. Holder. The wood-cuts are those which have appeared in 
Wood’s book, also in Brehm’s Thierleben, while the colored 
plates are oleographs reproduced by Prang from the exquisite 
chromo-lithographs of the great work of Brehm 
As a picture book of the animal creation, particularly of the 
vertebrates, it will prove attractive. The accompanying illustra- 
tion of that strange animal the Capybara, the “ native hog” of 
South America, the largest of existing rodents, will give an idea 
of the kind of illustrations used in the numbers we have thus far 
received. While, then, not specially authoritative or American 
in its plan or authorship, we doubt not that it will be welcomed 
by many as a readable “ natural histo 
As respects the classification adopted, the arrangement should 
be such as is generally followed by modern zodlogists. To place 
the marsupials between the land Carnivora and the seals is a vio- 
lation of the simplest principles of classification. The Insectivora 
and bats are placed too near the primates, although it should be 
said that the position of these groups is in dispute. 
ae work will be issued in forty-two parts of forty-eight pages 
cents a part; it will contain forty-two oleographs and 
NSE full-page wood engraving. The paper and press-work 
are excellent. 
MEMOIRS oF THE NATIONAL AcApemy oF Scrences.—The third 
volume of the National Academy appeared in 1884 from the 
vernment printing office. It is a quarto volume of 262 pages, 
_ and contains four memoirs read before the academy in 1884, 
_ under the following titles: Report of the Eclipse expedition to 
Caroline island, May, 1883; Experimental determination of wave- 
= lengths in the invisible prismatic spectrum, by Professor S. P. 
i wii 8 On the subsidence of particles in liquids, by Professor 
= H. Brewer ; On the formation of a deaf OT of the human 
+ 
