to say that this volume is, in a high degree, both interesting and useful. It presents in a pleasant form, and with pointed applications, the sort of information that should be most widely distributed, and abounds in facta and suggestions of importance that cannot be readily obtained elsewhere.
Floral Decorations for the Dwelling-House. A Practical Guide to the Home Arrangement of Plants and Flowers. By Annie Hassard. American edition, revised. With many Illustrations. Pp. 166. New York: Macmillan & Co. Price, 1.50.
This little book, written by a person who evidently understands fully the art of floral decoration, will be found helpfully suggestive to all those who wish to make flowers accessory to the attractiveness of their homes.
The author aims, by both illustration and statement, to render the principles underlying her art so plain that any woman may tastefully and successfully decorate her table, adorn her drawing-room, and in some sense, by the use of plants around her windows and balconies, bring to the interior of home not only the beauty but the simple delights of the external garden. The whole subject of table-decoration, including forms of stands and vases, the arrangement of fruit and flowers, the adjustment of these to the light, materials and means for keeping flowers fresh, as well as window-gardening, hanging baskets, grouping of plants, wreaths, crosses, and even button-hole bouquets, find very instructive treatment in this little volume. It is shown how the simplest available materials—ferns, grasses, autumn leaves—no less than the richest products of the florist's art, may serve, in the hands of the skillful manipulator, to produce most graceful effects.
The chromatic principles of grouping are indicated in the following extract:
"In producing harmonious contrasts of colors, it should be remembered that there are only three primary colors—red, blue, and yellow. From these arise what are called the binary or secondary colors, namely, orange, composed of yellow and red; purple, composed of blue and red; and green, composed of yellow and blue. These form contrasting colors to the primary three with which they are in harmonious opposition, as the orange with blue, purple with yellow, and green with red. From the combination with these secondary colors arise three tertiary colors—olive, from purple and green; citron, from green and orange; and russet, from orange and purple. These tertiary colors harmonize with the primaries, as they stand in the relation of neutral tints to them, but are in harmonious opposition to the secondaries from which they are combined. Red, blue, and yellow, harmonize with each other, and they may be placed in juxtaposition, but purple should not be near red or blue, as it is composed of these two colors, the rule being that no primary color should be brought into contact with a secondary of which itself is a component part; nor any secondary color brought into contact with a tertiary color of which it is a component part."
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel. By Mrs. John Herschel. With Portraits. Pp. 355. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.75.
This is one of the most fresh and charming volumes that has come from the press in many a day. It is of such unique and special attraction that we have drawn upon it for the materials of two articles in the Monthly, which cannot fail to incite the reader to desire the perusal of the whole book. And it will amply repay the most careful reading. Aside from the interest at every step in the life of the remarkable woman who tells her own story in such a vivid and racy way, this biography will have permanent value as connected with the rise of modern sidereal astronomy, and as throwing light upon the characteristics of an illustrious scientific family. Telescopes, new planets, comets, double stars, and nebulæ, are always attractive things to read about, but what engages us most intently with these pages is that they overflow with human nature from beginning to end.
Analytical Processes; or, The Primary Principle of Philosophy. By William I. Gill, A. M. Pp. 483. New York: The Authors' Publishing Company. Price, $2.
The author of this book made his mark as an acute and independent thinker by the publication, a year or two since, of a volume called "Evolution and Progress." The present volume is the first of a series, each complete in itself, in which a fresh attempt will be made to construct a philosophy. No intimation is given as to what will be its character, the present book being occupied entirely with the foundation,
