660 General Notes. 
year and now issued in pamphlet form, include one “On Fer- 
mentation,” by Dr. Sedgwick, which is a model of simplicity 
coupled with accuracy. Excellent figures are given of yeast 
plants and many forms of Bacteria. Dr. Rothrock has been 
studying the microscopical distinctions between good and bad 
timber, some of the results of which he embodied in a paper 
read before the Am. Phil. Society, Feb. 2, 1883. A plate accom- 
panies the paper. We should like to see more work like this 
one. In the April Yournal of Botany appears a list of “ New 
genera and species of Phanerogams published in periodicals in 
Britain in 1882,” which ought to find a counterpart in some of 
our American journals for American plants——J. C. Arthur de- 
scribes and figures a new variety of the common walking-leaf 
fern (Camptosorus rhizophyllus Link., var. intermedius) p S 
April Bot. Gazette. It approaches C. sibiricus in shape 
and character of the fibro-vascular bundle. It was collected on 
limestone cliffs in Eastern Iowa. 
ENTOMOLOGY.’ i 
THE NEW CLASSIFICATION OF THE COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMER 
1cA.—This important work, prepared by Drs. LeConte and Hom, 
and to which we referred to on p. 515 of last year’s Na = 
has just been published by the Smithsonian Institution as No. 
507 of its Miscellaneous Contributions. Its appearance bic 
hailed with joy not only by coleopterists in this country, Mi 
by all those interested in Entomology. It is a stately oe 
ume of 567 pages, and though the general arrangement of ia i 
ter is as in the first “ Classification,” the present volume 1s Mi 
more than a mere second edition thereof. In the former ™ a 
the Phytophaga, Rynchophora and what was formerly hinge" 
Trimera were not reached, whereas the new classification © up 
the whole order, is almost entirely re-written, and 1s brought : 
to date. : that ie 
The general arrangement of the families is in the main the 
proposed by Crotch, with but one important change, Vi2» ss 
Serricornia are placed before the Lamellicornia, the au Bee 
fying this change by the close relationship existing bette relr 
members of the Clavicorn series and the Serricormia. "ag 
in the Clavicornia and Heteromera respectively. ca study 
the introduction, which gives a very clear exposition of 
ternal anatomy of the Coleoptera, illustrated by original " i 
drawn by Dr. Horn. r 
: : D cto 
1 This department is edited by ProF. C. V. RILEY, Washington, =° ; 
communications, books for notice, etc., may be sent, 
