Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/439

Rh Materials for German Prose Composition. By C. A. Bucheim, F. C. P. Ninth edition. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1885. Pp.252. $1.25.

The Occult World. By A. P. Sinnett. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. Pp. 228. $1.25.

The Philosophic Grammar of the American Languages, as set forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. Philadelphia: McCalla & Stavely. 1885. Pp. 51.

The Invalids’ Tea-Tray. By Susan A. Brown. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. 1885. Pp. 67.

Russia under the Tzars. By Stepniak. Translated by William WestalL New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1885. Pp. 381. $1.50.

An Inglorious Columbus. By Edward P. Vining. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885. Pp. 788. $5.

Collected Essays in Political and Social Science. By William G. Sumner. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1885. Pp. 173. $1.50.

Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous. By Julius A. Palmer, Jr. Boston: L. Prang &, Co. 1885. Pp. 5, and Twelve Colored Plates.

The Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior. By Roland Duer Irving. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1883. Pp. 464. Illustrated.



The American Association.—The next meeting of the American Association is appointed to be held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, beginning August 20th. The Association at its last or Philadelphia meeting expressed a preference for Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, as the place of its next meeting, if suitable accommodations could be secured there, naming Ann Arbor as an alternative place. It has been ascertained that, while hotel-room is not wanting at Mount Desert in July and the latter part of September, all possible accommodations are taken up at the time the Association would meet, in August. At Ann Arbor, the university buildings and the rooms usually occupied by the students will be at the disposal of the Association.

The British Association.—The arrangements for the coming meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen, Septemoer 9th, are nearly completed. The president-elect for the year is Sir Lyon Playfair. The general secretaries are Captain Gal ton and Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, while Professor Bonny serves for the last time as acting secretary. The presidents of the various sections arc: A, Mathematical and Physical Science, Professor G. Chrystal; B, Chemical Science, Professor H. E. Armstrong; C, Geology, Professor J. W. Judd; D, Biology, Professor W. C. Mcintosh; E, Geography, General J. T. Walker; F, Economic Science and Statistics, Professor Henry Sidgwick; G, Mechanical Science, Mr. Benjamin Baker; II. Anthropology, Mr. Francis Galton. The lecture to working-men will be delivered by Mr. Harold B. Dixon, on "The Nature of Explosives." The other lectures will be by Professor Grylls Adams, subject not announced, and Mr. John Murray, director of the Challenger Expedition Commission, on "The Great Ocean Basins."

How Floras are changing.—Professor C. E. Bessey notices, in the "American Naturalist," on the subject of "Plant Migrations," a few instances in which certain plants have disappeared from the flora of a part of Central Iowa, to have their places taken by other species coming in from abroad. Fifteen years ago the Dysodia chrysanthemoides grew by the road-side in great abundance; now it is scarcely to be found, and is replaced by the introduced "dog-fennel," or "May-weed" of New England (Anthemis cotula). Then, the small flea-bane (Erigeron divaricatum) abounded on dry soils; now it is rapidly disappearing. Mulleins have begun to appear, and the squirrel-tail grass (Hordeum jubatum), which had no place in the flora, is very abundant, and has been for ten years. The low amaranth (Amarantus biitoides), which was rarely found, is now abundant, and has migrated fully one hundred and fifty miles northeastward. Bur grass, also, a most offensive plant, has come in, and appears to be rapidly increasing. Professor Bessey is informed by old settlers that in Nebraska the buffalo-grasses were formerly abundant in the eastern part of the State, but have now retreated for a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles, while they have been followed by the blue-stems (Andropogon and Chrysopogon), which now grow in great luxuriance all over the plains, where twenty years ago the ground was practically bare. The same is taking place in Dakota.

Color of Arctic Animals.—Mr. Wallace's theory that the white color of many Arctic animals is due to protective adaptation or mimicry has been disputed by Mr. Meldola, who speaks of some Arctic animals that are not white, and regards that color as having some relation to the radiation or absorption 