294 
[May, 
Analyses of Books. 
systematic education of the colour sense in children. It would 
be well if all the perceptions were systematically cultivated. 
Mr. Gallaudet referred to the proceedings at the International 
Convention of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb, and declared 
himself in favour of the oral method in contradistinction to that 
of signs. 
Mr. J. W. Chickering gave an account of the elevations, the 
climate, and the flora of the Roan Mountains in North Carolina. 
The peculiar plants met with, even at altitudes of 6000 feet and 
upwards, are scarcely sub-alpine, and between 3000 and 4000 feet 
the forest trees are magnificent. The individual masses and 
ranges appeared to have been formed by the erosion of a table- 
land. 
Mr. Lester F. Ward read a very elaborate memoir on the flora 
of Washington and its vicinity. The author describes with some 
humour the botanist’s point of view, which, we may add, is pre- 
cisely that of the zoologist in every department : — “ Rich fields 
of corn are to him waste lands ; cities are his abhorrence ; and 
great areas under high cultivation he calls ‘ poor country ’ ; while, 
on the other hand, the impenetrable forest delights his gaze, the 
rocky cliff charms him, thin soiled barrens, boggy fens, and un- 
reclaimable morasses^are for him the finest lands in a State. 
The axe and the plough are to him symbols of barbarism, and 
the reclaiming of waste lands and the opening-up of his favourite 
haunts to cultivation he instinctively denounces as aCts of 
Vandalism. While all this may seem as absurd to some as does 
the withholding from tillage of great pleasure-grounds in the form 
of hunting-parks for the landed sporting gentry of Northern and 
Western Europe, still, when these parts of the world are com- 
pared with the artificially-made deserts of South-eastern Europe 
and Western Asia, caused by the absence of such sentiments, 
there may perhaps be dimly recognised a soul of good in things 
evil, if not a soul of wisdom in things ridiculous.” 
The author proposes a certain district along Rock Creek, near 
Washington, as a National Park, and urges its preservation for 
that purpose. 
Passing to details, we find a list of cases of well-defined 
albinoism in seven species, including a Vinca and a Rhododendron. 
Four species have been found with “ the flowers much doubled, 
as in cultivation.” 
Concerning nomenclature we find a very just remark : — “ Some 
scientific men seem disposed to forget that it is the things rather 
than the names which constitute the objeCts of scientific study. 
There is a vast amount of true scientific observation made by 
mere school-girls and rustics who do not even know the name of 
the branch of science they are pursuing. A knowledge of a 
plant by any name or no name at all is scientific knowledge, and 
the devotees of science should care less for the means than for 
the end they have in view. 
