Verde Valley, Arizona, by Cosmas Mindeleff; Omaha Dwellings, Furniture, and Implements, by J. Owen Dorsey; Casa Grande Ruin, by Cosmas Mindeleff; and Outlines of Zuni Creation Myths, by Frank Hamilton Cushing.
The Miscellaneous Papers by Heinrich Hertz, in an authorized English translation by D. E. Jones and G. A. Schott, published by the Macmillan Company, form the first volume of the author's collected works, as edited by Dr. Philipp Lenard. The second volume is a reprint of his Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action (already published in English as Electric Waves), and the third volume consists of his Principles of Mechanics, of which an English translation is in press. The papers here included represent chiefly the earlier investigations which the author carried out before his electrical researches; but the last three—the Heidelberg lecture on the Relations between Light and Electricity, an experimental investigation of the passage of the cathode rays through thin metallic tubes, and a tribute to Helmholtz, are of later dates. Nearly all the papers are extremely technical. In the introduction Prof. Lenard gives a brief history of Hertz's career in investigation, with notices of the occasions on which some of the papers were composed, illustrated by liberal extracts from the author's letters to his parents.
The Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden for 1895, the seventh annual report, is a favorable one in all respects. The finances are entirely satisfactory, the receipts from rentals having been increased by $7,500; profitable improvements and valuable additions have been made in the garden; a larger number of visitors by one third were recorded than in 1894, and they "showed no disposition to vandalism"; the herbarium has been added to, and now contains 242,162 specimens, valued at $24,216; besides 4,807 wood specimens and veneers and microscopic slides of woods; and the library contains 20,549 volumes and pamphlets. The scientific papers appended to the report include one by Dr. Trelease on the Juglandaceœ of the United States, particularly the hickories, described with reference to their winter characteristics; a study of the Agaves of the United States, by A. Isabel Mulford; an account of the ligulate Wolffias—plants of the Duckweed family—of the United States, by Charles Henry Thompson; an address by President Henry W. Rogers, of Northwestern University, on the Value of a Study of Botany; and a catalogue of the Sturtevant Prelinnæan Library—a gift of early Herbals, Natural Histories, and Medical Botanies, made to the institution by Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, of South Framingham, Mass.
The Annual Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey for 1894-'95 relates to the Surface Geology, the Archæan Geology, Artesian Wells and Water Supply, and Forestry. In surface geology Prof. Salisbury made a general reconnaissance of the southeastern parts of the State, and Mr. G. O. Knapp of the southwestern; and the field work on the surface formations is now done over nearly all the State. Work was continued over the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations, the Red Sandstone formation, and the crystalline rocks of the Highlands; and special attention continues to be given to artesian wells, drainage, and natural parks and forest reservations. Of the special papers on these subjects we note that on forestry as being most timely and full and definite; and the subject of forest fires receives in it a very satisfactory discussion.
A pamphlet on Oxides, the first of a series under the general title. Chemistry at a Glance, has been prepared by Herbert B. Tuttle. After some introductory matter on chemical physics, and a list of elements, there follows a list of radicals with a graphic formula for each. About half the pamphlet is occupied by a list of oxides, giving the properties and a graphic formula for each, and there is a similar but shorter list of compounds that the author groups under the name "oxate." (The author. New York, 60 cents.)
The contents of the Twentieth Annual Report of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana for 1895 pertain almost wholly to economic geology. The introductory portion embodies a general review of the natural fuels of the State (coal, petroleum, and natural gas), its resources other than fuels, its natural history, the condition of the State Museum which is under--
