478  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.    {  AmsJX'i887.arm 
Illustrated  by  the  author.  Boericke  &  Tafel,  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 
Fascicle  vi.   Price  $5. 
The  fascicle  before  us  completes  this  work,  which  has  been  in  preparation 
for  several  years.  In  our  previous  notices  we  have  spoken  of  the  scope  of 
the  work,  its  general  arrangement,  and  the  character  of  the  illustrations  as 
well  as  of  the  descriptions  and  statements  relating  to  composition,  and  we 
find  that  the  good  and  indifferent  qualities  have  been  pretty  uniformly 
preserved  throughout  the  work. 
In  our  opinion,  the  usefulness  of  the  work  depends  chiefly  upon  its  value 
as  relating  to  medical  botany.  The  well-executed  plates  give  fair  and 
correct  representations  of  the  plants,  which  are  colored  as  nearly  true  to 
nature  as  can  reasonably  be  expected.  In  a  few  cases  we  would  have  pre- 
ferred drawings  more  characteristic  of  the  entire  plants,  but  even  in  these 
cases  we  have  no  fault  to  find  with  the  general  correctness.  The  botanical 
descriptions  are  pretty  complete,  though  perhaps  briefer  than  some  may 
desire  who  have  paid  but  little  attention  to  our  wild  growing  plants ;  as  a 
rule,  they  are  ample  for  enabling  an  intelligent  person  to  identify  the 
plants.  We  have  previously  stated  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the 
plants,  thus  illustrated,  are  not  indigenous  to  American  soil,  but  have 
become  naturalized  here  more  or  less  extensively,  or  are  sometimes  found 
growing  spontaneously  in  certain  localities.  Pharmacognostical  descrip- 
tions are  omitted,  except  in  a  few  instances. 
In  relation  to  the  chemistry  reported  in  the  text,  we  have  on  various 
occasions  pointed  out  errors,  omissions  and  inaccuracies,  or  vague  state- 
ments. The  physiological  action  of  the  plants  is  usually  briefly  stated ;  but 
on  this  point  we  leave  others  to  judge.  However,  one  feature  not  previously 
referred  to  we  must  notice  now,  namely,  the  errors  in  the  spelling  of  French 
and  German  names,  which  are  of  more  frequent  occurrence  than  is  allow- 
able in  a  work  of  reference.  For  instance,  we  should  have  raifort  (not 
razfoot),  cigue  (not  cigue),  pied  de  lion  (not  pied  d'  leon),  igname  (not 
iguame),  Barlapp  (not  Biirlapp),  Kolbenmoos  (not  Kalbenmoos),  Schierling 
(not  Scheming),  Nachtschatten  (not  Nachschatten),  etc.  A  number  of  typo- 
graphical errors  occur  likewise  in  the  index. 
The  publishers  have  left  nothing  undone  to  make  the  work  attractive, 
even  aside  from  the  180  plates,  which  alone  are  fully  worth  the  price 
charged  for  the  work. 
Grasses  of  the  South. — A  Report  on  Certain  Grasses  and  Forage  Plants  for 
Cultivation  in  the  South  and  Southwest.  By  Dr.  Geo.  Vasey,  Botanist, 
Washington  :  1887.    8vo,  pp.  63. 
The  pamphlet  contains  sixteen  plants  of  southern  forage  plants,  and 
has  been  issued  by  the  Botanical  Division  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture.   
Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  of  Massachusetts. 
—Boston:  1887.    8vo,  pp.  366. 
The  report  is  for  the  year  1886;  the  portions  of  greatest  direct  interest  to 
the  pharmacist  are  the  special  reports  on  the  examination  of  foods  by  Dr. 
