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bee are given, viz: the common black of Central Europe, Italian and the Egyptian, which is also found in Asia Minor, and supposed to be the species spoken of in the Bible. The systematic position and relations of the creature also receive attention.

In describing the apparatus used in their management, we notice that most of it is such as has been thrown aside and superseded in this country by simpler or more effective contrivances. The queen yard" as used by Quinby and improved by Mrs. Farnham, "queen cages," "breeding hives" are not mentioned. This fact taken with what the editors saw at the Centennial Exposition in the way of apparatus, from England principally, leads him to conclude that American bee-keepers are far ahead of their European brethren in the perfection of appliances to render the pursuit of apiculture profitable.

BREHM'S ANIMAL LIFE.-This volume completes the account of the Carnivora, and treats of the Insectivora, Rodentia, Edentata,

FIG. 1. SKELETON OF THE KANGAROO.

1 Brehm's Thierleben. Band 2. Grosse Ausgabe. Zweite umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflager. Leipzic, 1877. 8vo, pp. 628. B. Westerman & Co. New York.

Marsupialia and Didelphia, so that some of the most interesting of all the mammals are described by word and pencil. The vol

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ume is rich in full page illustrations, containing fifteen drawn with

FIG. 3. SKELETON OF Echidna hystrix.

great apparent accuracy and skill, comprising portraits in various.

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of Good Hope, and the two-toed sloth (Cholapus didactylus). The marsupials are illustrated, with many excellent drawings, including among others pictures of the Thylacinus, tasmanian devil, Dasyurus, opossum, kangaroo rat, wombat, koala, &c., &c. Through the kindness of the publishers we are able to reproduce the skeleton

attitudes, with the appropriate surrounding features, or environment, of the crag and long-lipped bear, hyæna, ichneumon, coati, bobak, mara or cavy (C. patagonica), fish otter, field mouse, porcupine, with a very spirited drawing of a drove of capybaras, and a group of kangaroos, as well as the singular Oryctopus of the Cape

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FIG. 4. SPINY ECHIDNA (E. hystrix).

of the kangaroo, and a drawing by Zimmermann of Macropus thetidis (one-eighth natural size). The Monotremes are also well drawn, as will be seen by the accompanying figures of the Echidna hystrix, and its skeleton; the pair of duck-bills is well drawn.

The bears are well figured with one or two exceptions. We are not well suited with the group of prairie dogs, and in the account of them more perhaps might have been quoted from American authors, than from passing German travelers. The Egyptian Jerboa is well drawn and described at length, while no mention is made of our American jumping mouse or Meriones hudsonicus, and our characteristic jackass rabbit is not mentioned, much less figured. Still the work is of great value to the general reader and student of nature, as well as the special zoologist, as being a treasury of excellent illustrations and descriptions of the habits of the most striking animals of the globe; and we hope that the work will meet with a good sale in this country, where we are too much inclined to study American species alone. The price of the work in this country is 40 cents a part or about $5.00 a volume, which is certainly very reasonable.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.-The Development of the Cranial Nerves in the Chick. By A. Milnes Marshall. (From Quart. Journ. Microscopical Science) 1877. 8vo, pp. 33. Two plates.

Brehm's Thierleben. Leipzig, 1878. New York, B. Westerman & Co. Band 7. Parts 1-10. 40 cts a part.

Ferns of North America. By Prof. D. C. Eaton. Salem, S. E. Cassino. 4to. Parts 2 and 3.

$1.00.

Collembola borealia.

Nordiska Collembola, beskrifna af Tycho Tullberg. (Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps Akadémiens Förhandlingar, 1876). Stockholm. 8vo, pp. 19. 4 plates.

Estudios sobre las Deformaciones, Enfermedades y Enemigos del Arbol de cafe en Venezuela. Por. A. Ernst. Caracas, 1878. 8vo, pp. 24.

Note sur des Perforations, observées dans deux Morceaux de Bois fossile. Note sur une aranéide fossile des Terrains tertiaires d'aix. Par. Charles Brogniart. (Extrait des Annales de le Société Entomologique de France). Paris, 1877. 8vo, pp. 9. Notes on the Herpetology of Dakota and Montana. By Drs. Elliott Coues and H. C. Yarrow. (Extracted from the Bulletin of Hayden's U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, iv, No. 1.) Washington, 1878. 8vo, pp. 48.

Nomenclature in Zoology and Botany. A report to the American Association Adv. Science. By W. H. Dall. Salem, 1877. 8vo, pp. 56.

Pacific Coast Lepidoptera, No. 24. Notes on the genus Colias, with descriptions of some apparently new Forms. By Henry Edwards. (From the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. February 5, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 11.

Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario for the year 1877. By W. Saunders, C. J. S. Bethune, B. Gott and J. Williams. Toronto, 1877. 8vo, pp. 59. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Anatomie von Chiton. 8vo, pp. 27. Ueber den Begriff der Segmente bei Wirbelthieren und Wirbellosen, nebst Bemerkungen über die Wirbel. Säule des Menschen, 1877. 8vo, pp. 4.

Report on the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. By J. W. Powell, Washington, 1877. 8vo, pp. 19.

Notice of the Butterflies collected by Dr. Palmer in the arid regions of southern Utah and northern Arizona during the summer of 1877. By S. H. Scudder (Extracted from the Bulletin of Hayden's U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. Vol. IV, No. 1). Washington, 1878. 8vo, pp. 6.

Notes on some Jurassic Fossils, collected by Mr. G. M. Dawson, in the Coast Range of British Columbia. By J. F. Whiteaves, Montreal, 1878. 8vo, pp. 10. Traveling notes on the Surface Geology of the Pacific Slope. By G. M. Dawson. (From the Canadian Naturalist, viii. No. 7.) February, 1878. 8vo, pp. 11.

GENERAL NOTES.

BOTANY.

INFLUENCE OF MOISTURE ON VEGETATION.-Carefully conducted experiments (published by Paul Sorauer in the Botanische Zeitung, Jan., 1878) with spring barley yielded the following results: In dry air branching was greater than in moist, the mean figures standing at 2.77 and 2.37 respectively; length of leaves was greater in moist air in the ratio of 21.37 to 21.07, but the breadth was less (6.74 to 7.33); a moist atmosphere is more favorable to length of leaf-sheath in the proportion of 9.26 to 8.18, to growth of the principal stem (13.5 to 11.5) and to root development (26.8 to 23.9). It was found that the epidermal cells of the leaves were more numerous and broader, the cells between the stomates shorter, and the stomates themselves shorter in dry air. Also, that leaves developing in a moist atmosphere have comparatively fewer stomates per millemetre of length. The question is worth further working out apropos of the relation between the minute structure of organs and their environment.-Journal of Botany.

BESSY'S INJURIOUS FUNGI.-This is an essay on the different species of blight or Erysiphei, which live chiefly on the leaves and sometimes on the stems of plants, and attack no less than fifty species of plants of much value in agriculture. The article contains descriptions of all but three species, the descriptions in a few cases being original. Figures of ten species in sufficient detail for their identification accompany the text, which is extracted from the Seventh biennial report of the Iowa Agricultural College.

VARIATIONS IN THE LEAF-SCARS OF SIGILLARIA AND LEPIDODENDRON. In two papers reprinted from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Mr. H. L. Fairchild gives some interesting results of studies showing that species of these fossils have been multiplied to too great an extent, from the imperfect nature of the fossils, owing to the great variability of the only characters that can be used by fossil botanists.

REINSCH'S SAPROLEGNIEEE AND PARASITES IN DESMID CELLS.While this article from Pringsheim's Yahrbuch contains observations on certain new and very curious low plants, its chief interest to us are the figures and descriptions of sundry cytodes which have the power of penetrating the interior of desmids, and remind us of certain monera described some years ago by Cienkowski under the name of Vampirella. The author, who has just gone to Key West to study the large one-celled alga, has lately, during a visit to this country, been engaged in a study of the organisms in the Cochituate water of Boston. He found over a hundred species of minute plants and animals in this excellent drinking water.

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