scious effort to adapt social institutions to his own needs and desires." Considerable historical matter is cited in support of these views. In Part II, on production, Mr. Gunton criticises various definitions of wealth previously given, and thus defines it himself: "Everything may be regarded as wealth, the utility of which is actualized by human effort." Other topics discussed in this section of the book are the nature of value, relation of demand and supply, prices, cost of production, and the function of money. The author advocates the issuing of money by private enterprise, under government supervision. In the part on economic distribution he discusses various theories in regard to wages, rent, interest, profit, etc. Mr. Gunton regards the laissez-faire doctrine as unscientific, claiming that it is not likely to secure the survival of the most fit. In regard to international trade he affirms that protection should offset difference in wages, but should do no more; he argues the superiority of a home market over a foreign, and maintains that "no competition can promote industrial well-being which does not tend to make wealth cheap." The sub-title of the book—"with criticisms on current theories"—is amply justified, for nearly every prominent economist is criticised, from Adam Smith to Blaine.
The Missouri Botanical Garden. First Annual Report, 1890. St. Louis. Pp. 165.
This volume embodies a record of the founding of the Missouri Botanical Garden and of the Henry Shaw School of Botany. It contains a biographical sketch of Henry Shaw, from which it appears that the idea of laying out a garden first came to him during a visit to England, his native country, in 1851. Preparation of the ground for the garden was begun in 1857. In the same year the assistance of the late Dr. Engelmann, then in Europe, was secured to gather suggestions from foreign botanical gardens, and at about the same time a correspondence was begun with Sir William J. Hooker, whose advice largely influenced the shaping of the institution. Mr. Shaw had retired from business, and during the rest of his life over thirty years the development and supervision of this garden was his sole care. An outgrowth of the garden was Tower Grove Park, containing two hundred and seventysix acres, in which more than twenty thousand trees have been planted, all raised in the arboretum of the garden. This volume contains also Henry Shaw's will conveying the garden to a board of trustees, and providing for its maintenance, and also devising property to Washington University for the establishment of a School of Botany. The will is followed by the inaugural exercises of this school, held on November 6, 1885, a report on the school, made in June, 1890, and the first annual report of the Director of the Botanical Garden, covering the year 1889. The inaugural exercises include an address by William Trelease, Engelmann Professor in the school. There is also the first of a series of annual "flower sermons," and the proceedings at the first annual banquet of the trustees of the garden and their guests, funds for both of which commemorations were provided by the will. The volume is illustrated with many full-page views of buildings and spots in the garden and park, maps of the grounds, and a portrait of Mr. Shaw.
Building-Stone in New York. By John C. Smock. Bulletin of the New York State Museum. Vol. II, No. 10. Albany: University of the State of New York. Pp. 203.
A large amount of information is contained in this report, embracing the geological position and the composition of the building-stones found in the State of New York, the localities where they are quarried, the extent and nature of their use, their durability, etc. The descriptive notes in regard to quarries are arranged under the two general heads crystalline rocks and fragmental rocks; the former including granites, limestones, and marbles, and the latter comprising slate and a variety of sandstones. Under each kind of rock, each locality where it is quarried receives a paragraph. There is an important chapter on the use of stone in cities, in which is stated the general purposes for which the several kinds of stone are used in each of the cities of the State, names of structures built of each kind being given. Many of the stones here mentioned come from without the State. A report on physical and chemical tests of representative building-stones of New York, by Prot. Francis A. Wilber, is inserted, and
