144  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.     { A  VarckSra™' 
has  been  finally  completed  with  the  issuance  of  parts  1 1  and  12  and 
the  index  of  the  entire  work,  which  have  just  come  to  hand.  Pro. 
fessor  Wiesner  has  written  the  introductory  as  well  as  the  chapters 
on  gums,  resins,  starches  and  fibres  ;  all  the  remainder  has  been  the 
work  of  a  dozen  colleagues  connected  with  the  various  German 
universities  and  who  are  well  known  for  their  researches  on  various 
raw  materials  of  the  vegetable  kingdom. 
It  may  be  useful  to  mention  briefly  the  contents  of  this  important 
work  on  "  raw  materials  of  the  vegetable  kingdom."  Part  I  con- 
tains an  able  introduction  by  Dr.  Wiesner  and  also  a  chapter  on 
gums  by  Wiesner  and  Zeisel,  in  which  are  considered  the  natural 
history,  physical  and  chemical  characteristics,  constitution,  origin  in 
the  plant,  enumeration  of  plants  yielding  gums  and  a  special  con- 
sideration of  ten  important  commercial  gums. 
Chapter  II  is  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  resins  by  Wiesner 
and  Bamberger,  which  is  characterized  by  the  same  thorough  detailed 
and  interesting  treatment  as  the  chapter  on  gums,  twenty-two  im- 
portant commercial  resins  being  considered  in  detail.  Chapter  III 
is  on  the  caoutchouc  group  and  is  the  work  of  Molisch,  who  treats 
of  the  caoutchouc-yielding  plants,  the  nature  of  milk-vessels  and 
milk-juices,  and  especially  considers  caoutchouc,  guttapercha  and 
balata.  Opium  and  aloes  have  been  exhaustively  considered  by 
Vogl  in  Chapters  IV  and  V,  and  Molisch  has  taken  up  the  subject 
of  indigo  in  Chapter  VI,  which  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  chap- 
ters in  the  work.  Mikosch,  in  Chapters  VII,  VIII  and  IX  has 
written  upon  the  catechu  group,  including  catechu,  gambir  and 
kino,  and  the  vegetable  fats  and  waxes.  The  latter  subjects  are 
particularly  instructive,  as  they  are  considered  not  only  in  a  chemi- 
cal sense,  but  in  their  botanical  relationships.  The  chapter  on 
camphor  by  v.  Vogl,  while  it  might  have  been  enlarged,  neverthe- 
less contains  considerable  authentic  information.  Chapter  XI  is 
devoted  to  the  consideration  of  starches  by  Wiesner  and  Zeisel  and 
is  a  treatment  of  the  origin  and  constitution  of  starch,  the  prepara- 
tion of  commercial  starches,  including  the  special  study  of  twenty-one 
different  commercial  starches.  Lafar  has  an  interesting  chapter  on 
yeasts.  Krasser  considers  in  Chapters  XIII  and  XIV  the  economi- 
cal algse  and  lichens.  Chapter  XV  embodies  an  interesting  mono- 
graph on  galls,  including  their  origin,  natural  history,  chemical 
characteristics  and  a  detailed  study  of  the  galls  on  species  ot 
