In this connection, it is to be noted that the coal plants of Chaitung, west of Pekin, obtained by R. Pumpelly, and described by Dr. Newberry (Geol. Res. in China, etc., Smithson. Contrib., No. 202, 1867,) are referred by the latter to the Trias; they embraced the species Pterozamites Sinensis Newb., Podozamites lanceolatus Lindl., Pod. Emmonsii Newb., (P. lanceolatus of N. Carolina, Emmons), Sphenopteris orientalis Newb., Pecopteris Whitbyensis Brongn., Hymenophyllites tenellus Newb., Taxites spatulatus Newb. Von Richthofen, on the contrary, concluded, from the conformability of the coal-bearing beds to others below containing Paleozoic fossils, that the coal of China (this Journal, II, i, 410, 1870), was for the most part Carboniferous.

7. The Dawn of Life, being the History of the oldest known Fossil Remains, and their relations to Geological Time and to the development of the Animal Kingdom; by J. W. DAWSON, LL.D.,. F.R.S., etc. 240 pp. 12mo, with plates and wood cuts. London, 1875. (Hodder and Stoughton.)--This volume contains a complete account of the history of the discovery of the Eozoon, and of its structure and nature as developed by Dr. Dawson, Prof. Carpenter, and others. The facts described are illustrated by excellent figures; and one of them, facing page 35, representing an Eozoon mass, looks exceedingly like a form of coral-the Stromatoporato which group it was referred by Logan before its interior structure was studied. The subject discussed is of profound geological importance, since it bears on the question as to the first expression of the animal idea in an organism, and the volume is therefore one of great interest. The Eozoon is referred by the author to the section of the Rhizopods containing the Foraminifers, and to the division of the Foraminifers called Perforata, to which the Nummulinida, Globigerinida and Lagenida belong, which have calcareous skeletons penetrated by pores. An inferior division, called the Imperforata, have calcareous membranous or arenaceous skeletons without pores.

8. Geographical and Geological Surveys; by J. D. WHITNEY. 96 pp. 8vo. From the North American Review for July and October, 1875. Cambridge, 1875. (Welch, Bigelow & Co.)-Professor Whitney in these papers brings to bear the results of his wide experience as a geographical and geological explorer, in a discussion of the objects, methods, and purposes of such surveys, and gives some account of their history in this and other countries. Much information is presented on the topographical maps issued by foreign governments, and on those in progress and needed at home. The history of geological exploration in the United States is treated with considerable detail and with discrimination. The volume is one to which all may go for information and judicious advice as to the ends accomplished by State surveys, and the means required to secure from them the greatest good to the people.

9. Descriptive Catalogue of the specimens in the Museum of Melbourne, illustrating the rock system of Victoria; by G. H. F. ULRICH, M.E., F.G.S. 108 pp. 8vo. Melbourne, 1875.-Besides

the detailed description of the individual specimens in the museum, this little book contains some remarks upon the different kinds of rocks of Victoria and their relations, which give it something more than a local interest. A considerable number of analyses are given, especially for the igneous rocks.

10. Geology of Illinois.-The last volume of the series of reports connected with the Geological survey of Illinois under Mr. Worthen is now in the binder's hands.

11. Geological map of the United States and Canada.-In a few days, a Geological chart of the United States (east of the 104th meridian) and Canada, by Prof. F. H. BRADLEY, will be on sale by Messrs. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 138 and 140 Grand street, New York, the publishers of Professor Dana's works on Geology. Its size is 24 inches by 16. It contains all the detail and accuracy possible on a chart of this size in the present state of the science. The geological areas are well distinguished by a judicious system of lining, instead of by colors, and hence the chart will be afforded, as we understand, at the low rate of one dollar each. It should be in the hands of all students in geology, and is absolutely indispensable to every teacher.

12. Einleitung in die Krystallberechnung; von Prof. CARL KLEIN, Erste Abtheilung. 208 pp. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1875.-Prof. Klein develops the subject of Crystallography from the standpoint of Quenstedt, according to whom the relations of the planes of a crystal are shown by the lines in which they are projected upon a given plane of projection. He does not confine himself to the somewhat unwieldy formulas of Quenstedt, however, but makes all calculations of axial relations and parameters by means of spherical triangles in the manner employed by von Kobell. The author has worked out with much care and completeness the solutions of the various problems which arise, and accompanies each with an example performed in full, so that the student cannot fail to comprehend the method.

E. S. D.

13. On Troilite; by Dr. J. LAWRENCE SMITH.-A paper on troilite by Dr. Smith was read before the French Academy of Sciences on the 22d of November last. The author shows by new and careful analyses that troilite, or the sulphide of iron of meteorites, has the composition he has before obtained for it, represented by the formula FeS, and not that of pyrrhotite (Fe7S8) to which species it is referred by M. Saint Meunier in a communication to the Academy of March, 1874. He observes that the specific gravity of troilite, 4813, also separates it from pyrrhotite, a selected specimen of the latter affording him only 4.642. As this meteoric sulphide is found imbedded in a mass of iron, "the natural supposition is that the sulphur would be saturated with the iron." Hence, he adds, "troilite like schreibersite, is exclusively a celestial mineral.

Rectification of the Geological map of Michigan, embracing observations on the Drift of the State; by Alexander Winchell. 17 pp. 8vo. Salem, 1875. From Proc. Amer. Assoc. for 1875.

III. BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.

1. KARL KOCH, Vorlesungen über Dendrologie. Lectures on Dendrology, delivered in Berlin in the winter semester of 1874-75. Stuttgart, F. Enke, 1875, pp. 408, 8vo.―These are the notes of a course of popular lectures by Prof. Koch, on a subject in which he is thoroughly at home. They must have been delightful to hear, as they are pleasant to read, and are full of interesting matter. It is only the first course of a series which is to be continued this winter. The first division, of seven lectures, is a history of landscape gardens and gardening. The second divis ion, of as many more, treats of the structure, growth, and life of trees, of the influence of woods upon mankind, and as regulators of temperature and atmospherical changes. The third division, in four lectures, treats of Coniferous trees,-all in a popular way. Prof. Koch insists that the two willows confounded as forms of the Weeping Willow, are neither of them Persian or Assyrian, except by immigration, but natives of a farther east, i. e., of China and Japan. One of them may have reached Western Asia, however, early enough to have been collected by Tournefort, and so to excuse the error fixed by Linnæus by his name of S. Babylonica. But even the last volume of DeCandolle's Prodromus does not rectify it. Notwithstanding Prof. Koch's correction and elucidation, it is likely that popular books and the popular belief will continue to associate the Weeping Willow with the River of Babylon and the hanging harps of the weeping Israelites, although the tree of the Psalm most likely was a Poplar. We believe it was Ker Porter who remarked that willows were to be found along the river, but only as low shrubs: upon these nothing larger than a comparatively modern musical instrument associated with the name and nation could well be hung. When the course is completed we shall look for an English edition of these lectures upon tree-lore.

A. G.

2. Insectivorous Plants; by CHARLES DARWIN. With illustrations. London: Murray. New York: D. Appleton & Co.This long expected work appeared last autumn, was immediately reprinted by the American publishers, and before this time has been so widely read that no detailed account of it is at all necessary. Its main topic is Drosera or Sundew, upon which the vast number and diversity of the observations and experiments-at once simple, sagacious, and telling--which it records, are about as wonderful as the results. As to the latter, it is established beyond question that the common Sundews are efficient fly-catchers; that the stalked glands, or tentacles, as Mr. Darwin terms them, are sensitive and turn inward or even in other required directions in response to irritation; that they equally respond and move in obedience to a stimulus propagated from a distance through other tentacles and across the whole width of the leaf; that the sensitiveness belongs only to the glands and tips of the tentacles, but

is propagated thence down their stalks and across the blade of the leaf through the cellular tissues; that they accurately and delicately discriminate animal or other nitrogenous matter from anything else; that the glands absorb such matter; that when excited by contact, or by the absorption of nitrogenous matter by the viscid enveloping liquid, an acid secretion is poured out and a ferment analogous to pepsin, the two together dissolving animal matter; so that the office and action of these glands are truly analogous to those of the glands of the stomach of animals. Finally that animal or nitrogenous matter, thus absorbed and digested in the glands, is taken in, and conveyed from cell to cell through the tentacles into the body of the leaf, was made evident by ocular inspection of the singular changes in the protoplasm they contain. So particularly have the investigations been made and so conscientiously recorded, that the account of those relating to one species of Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, fills 277 pages of the English edition, or more than half of the book. After all it ends with the remark: "and we see how little has been made out in comparison with what remains unexplained and unknown." The briefer examination of six other Sundews follows, some of them equally and others less efficient fly-catchers and feeders.

Dionaea is next treated, but with less detail. Indeed, except as to the particular nature of the secreted digesting fluid, there is little in this chapter that had not been made out or already become familiar here. That the secretion has digestive powers, and that it is re-absorbed, along with whatever has been digested, is now proved beyond reasonable doubt. That the motor impulse is conveyed through the cellular parenchyma, and not through the vascular bundles, or spiral vessels, and that the latter do not originate the secretion, as Rees and Wills in a recent paper seem to suppose they must, appears to be shown by the facts, and was antecedently probable. "The wonderful discovery made by Dr. Burdon Sanderson is now universally known: namely, that there exists a normal electrical current in the blade and footstalk, and that when the leaves are irritated the current is disturbed in the same manner as takes place during the contraction of the muscle of an animal.” The conclusion here needs to be checked by parallel experiments, to see whether the same reversion of current does not take place whenever a part of any leaf or green shoot is forcibly bent upon itself.

Aldrovanda vesiculosa, of the Drosera family, "may be called a miniature aquatic Dionaea" for, as discovered by Stein in 1873, "the bilobed leaves open under a sufficiently high temperature, and when touched suddenly close." Being submerged, their prey is confined to minute aquatic animals. For want of proper material and opportunity, Mr. Darwin was able to follow up only for a little way the observations of Stein and Cohn,-enough, however, to show that it also captures and consumes animals, but perhaps avails itself of the nitrogenous matter only when passing into decay.

Drosophyllum, a rare representative of the order, confined to Portugal and Morocco, grows on the sides of dry hills near Oporto; so that, as to station, it is the very counterpart of Aldrovanda. Its leaves are long and slender, in the manner of our Drosera filiformis, and are covered with much larger glands. To these flies adhere in vast numbers. "The latter fact is well known to the villagers, who call the plant the fly catcher,' and hang it up in their cottages for this purpose." Mr. Darwin found the glands incapable of movement, and their behavior in some other respects differs from that of Drosera; but they equally secrete a digestive juice. Insects usually drag off this secretion instead of being fixed on the glands by it; but their fate is no better; for as the poor animal crawls on and these viscid drops bedaub it on all sides, it sinks down at length exhausted or dead, and rests on a still more numerous set of small sessile glands which thickly cover the whole surface of the leaf. These were till then dry and inert, but as soon as auimal matter thus comes in contact with them, they also secrete a digestive juice, which, as Mr. Darwin demonstrated, has the power of dissolving bits of coagulated albumen, cartilage, or meat, with even greater readiness than that of Drosera.

Mr. Darwin next records various observations and experiments upon more ordinary glandular hairs of several plants. To certain Saxifrages his attention was naturally called, on account of the presumed relationship of Droseracea to this genus. He declares that "their glands absorb matter from an infusion of raw meat, from solutions of nitrate and carbonate of ammonia, and apparently from decayed insects. To such plants the vast number of little insects caught may not be useless, as they may be to many other plants (tobacco, for instance) with sticky glands, in which Mr. Darwin could detect no power of absorption. The prevalent idea, that glandular hairs in general serve merely as secreting o excreting organs, and are of small or no account to the plan, must now be reconsidered. Those of the common Chinese Primrose (Primula Sinensis) although indifferent to animal infusions, were found to absorb quickly both the solution and vapor of carbonate of ammonia. Now, as rain-water contains a small percentage of ammonia, and the atmosphere a minute quantity of the carbonate or nitrate, and as a moderate-sized plant of this primrose was ascertained, (by estimate from a count on small measured surfaces by Mr. Francis Darwin) to bear between 2 to 3 millions of these glands, it begins to dawn upon us that these multitudinous organs are neither mere excrescences nor outlets, nor in any just sense insignificant.

Mr. Darwin next investigates the densely crowded short glandular hairs, with their secretions, which form the buttery surface of the face of the leaves of Pinguicula, the Butterwort. He finds that the leaves of the common Butterwort have great numbers of small insects adhering to them, as also grains of pollen, small seeds, &c.; that most substances so lodged or placed, if yielding