and Washington Territory"; "Cretaceous Fossils from Vancouver Island Region," in which an intimate relation is shown with the fauna of the Chico group; "The Molluscan Fauna of the Puget Group," unique and indicating deposition in a large estuary; and "Mesozoic Mollusca from the Southern Coast of the Alaskan Peninsula," which are regarded as new. No. 52, Subaërial Decay of Rocks and Origin of the Red Color of Certain Formations, relates studies of the subject by Israel Clark Russell, chiefly among the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. The author believes that changes by decay have a wider geological bearing than has generally been assigned to them; and that the red color of certain sandstones is due to a coating of their particles with ferric oxide received during the process of subaërial decay of the rocks of the débris of which they are composed. The last of the present series of Bulletins—No. 53—is a study of The Geology of Nantucket, by Prof. N. S. Shaler. The island is regarded, together with the accompanying southern Massachusetts coast, Martha's Vineyard, Long Island, etc., as "the dissevered remains of a great shelf formed of the débris brought to its present position by the glacial ice and by the streams of water which flowed beneath it."
The United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, publishes an investigation of The Root-knot Disease of the Peach, Orange, and other Plants in Florida, due to the Work of Anguillula, made under its direction, in 1888, by Dr. J. C. Neal. A large number of species of plants are attacked by the worms, whose depredations are marked by the appearance of swellings or "knots" on the roots, and threaten to be damaging. The author has made studies of the nature of the insect and its ravages, and has experimented with reference to the remedies. His report is illustrated with plates representing attacked roots and the life-history of the enemy.
The June number of the Journal of Morphology, Vol. III, No. 1 (Prof. C. O. Whitman and Edward Phelps Allis, Jr., editors; Ginn & Co.), contains articles on "The Actiniaria of the Bahama Islands," by Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich; "Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of the Families of North American Passeres," and "Notes on the Anatomy of Speotyto cunicularia hypogea, by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt; and "Variation of the Spinal Nerves in the Caudal Region of the Domestic Pigeon," by James I. Peck. The September number, Vol. III, No. 2, has "The Mechanical Causes of the Development of the Hard Parts of the Mammalia," by E. D. Cope; and "The Embryology of Blatta germanica and Doryphora decemlincata"—the cockroach and the Colorado potato beetle—by William M. Wheeler.
A Bibliography of Geodesy was compiled by Prof. J. Howard Gore to supply a need which he felt while preparing a work on the "History of Geodesy." Before proceeding far in that work he found it very difficult at any time to make sure that the literature regarding the operations of a given period had been exhausted, and he sought to collect titles as well as the works themselves. His purpose extended to making the enterprise useful to others. He went abroad and searched through European libraries, examined minor libraries by proxy, and corresponded with authors to find if they had any other works than those of which he had the titles. The outcome of this persevering labor is a list filling four hundred columns of references, with short remarks where the title alone is not explanatory enough. Several institutions, among them the International Geodetic Congress of Berlin, offered to publish the book; but the author thought our Coast and Geodetic Survey was entitled to the preference, and the work is therefore issued under its auspices.
Part I of the nineteenth volume of the "Annals of the Observatory of Harvard College" contains Meteorological Observations made during the Years 1840 to 1888 inclusive, under the direction of the several directors of the observatory, Profs. W. C. and G. P. Bond, Joseph Winlock, and E. C. Pickering. Partial publications of these observations could already be found in the "Memoirs" of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the "American Almanac," and the Patent-Office Reports, but it has seemed desirable to make a collection of the monthly means. The volume begins with a history of the meteorological work of the observatory; the "monthly and annual results" come next; after which follow "Observa-
