292 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
u Blytt’s Flora” are given in Norsk, the vernacular language of the country. 
It would have been an uncommon and useful addition if the distribution 
of the species beyond the limits of Norway had been briefly indicated, as 
Mr. Bentham suggests should always be done in local floras of this nature. 
Thus, in the cases of the two non-British ferns, it might have been stated 
that Asplenium crenatum, Fr., occurs in Norway, Siberia, and Japan ; and 
that Struthiopteris germanica, Willd. (oddly enough absent from Britain), is 
found in Europe from Scandinavia to Austria, in Asia from Manchuria to 
the Altai Mountains, and in North America from Canada to Pennsylvania. 
As a recommendation to the book, at least for English students, it may 
be noted that the general arrangement of De Candolle’s “Prodromus” 
(though reversed in order) has been followed, Instead of one of the numerous 
so-called improved methods such as that employed by Hartman in his 
u Skandinaviens Flora.” The first part begins with Equisetaceae, and the 
portion of the second breaks off in the course of the Compositae, so as to 
omit the tribe Chicoriaceae ; so far the whole number of species described, 
including some crosses in the genera Saliv and Cirsium , is 637. 
For the purposes of the flora Norway is divided into three parts ; the 
first part contains all the country south of Dovrefjeld and east of the Lang- 
fjelds ; the second contains the country between the watershed of the Lang- 
fjelds and the North Sea from the Naze to about 63° N. lat. ; and the third 
contains all the country north of Dovrefjeld. 
The distribution of the species is referred to five ascending zones ; namely, 
the region of cultivation, the region of pines, the region of birches, the 
region of willows, and the region of lichens. 
HE u Bulletin ” (No. 2) contains an interesting monograph of the genus 
Leucosticte (Swainson), or the grey-crowned purple finches, including 
their history, biography, general characters, andig eographical distribution. 
They are sparrow-like birds characterised by terrestrial habits, rosy tints to 
the plumage of the posterior portions of the body, and a fondness for the 
cold climate of high latitudes or Alpine elevations. The distribution within 
the United States is exclusively western, none of the species occurring 
eastward of the base of the Bocky Mountains, which region is their centre of 
abundance, but one of them occurs, in winter, from thence to the Pacific 
coast. The Alpine summits of Colorado seem to be the southern limit of 
their summer distribution, being restricted at this season to an altitude of 
12,000 feet and upwards ; the resident species, however (L. Australis) mi- 
grates chiefly to the base of the mountains, or about 3,000 to 6,000 feet 
lower. A paper by Dr. E. Coues on the family Geomyidae gives the con- 
trasting cranial and dental characters of the two genera Geomys and 
* u Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey 
of the Territories,” Nos. 2 & 3. Second Series. Washington. 1875. 
“ United States Geological and Geographical Survey of Colorado, .Report 
for 1873.” By Dr. F. P. Hayden. Washington. 1874. 
AMERICAN ZOOLOGY AND GEOLOGY.* 
