Hat aa, 1886.]
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��blightB them as a. eiiddea frost oipa the tender exotics of our gardens.
Yet, despite the desolation of the land in all save the most congeDial localities, and the dif- flciilty with which the plants growing in these perform their necessary functions, even the bare iee and snow are not without their life, no lesa than forty-two species or well-marked varieties of ice and snow plants being now known. As might be inferred from their habi- tat, these are mainlj' algae, though the alga- like protonemata of several mosses are found, and the occurrence of putrefaction to a slight extent argues the presence of bacteria. The essential characters of this flora, are, in brief, that it consists almost exclusively of water- plants of low organization, propagating them- selves chiefly by non-sexual processes. Tliese plants are all microscopic ; yet, as they arc for the most part brightly colored, characteristic lints — red, brownish-purple, and gi-een — are often given to extensive areas of snow and ice by the myriads of these minute beings which occur together.
Under the title ' Insect-life in arctic lands,' Dr. Christopher Aurivillius gives an account of the expeditions which have enriched our knowledge of arctic insects, of the number of species of each order of insects collected, and of the literature of the subject. He explains that the uniformity of the arctic fauna becomes more striking as the north pole is approached, but that three subdivisions are recognizable : these he terms the Scandinavian arctic, the Asiatic arctic, and the American arctic regions. A brief notice of the influence of the retreat- ing glacial sheet, in the past, in leaving colonies of arctic insects on mountains, — of which Mount Washington, N.H., is especially men- tioned, — is followed by a discussion of the diflerence in relative proportion of species of the different orders of insects in arctic and temperate lands, and the causes of this unequal distribution. Insect metamorphoses are stated to take longer time in arctic than in temper- ate lands ; Oeneis Bore requiring two years to complete its changes, passing from Gve to six weeks as a subterranean pupa. The co-ordi- nate development of plants and insects in geo- logical time, especially the correspondence in the development of suctorial mouth-parts of insecta and of flowers with concealed or not easily accessible honey, is outlined ; and the relationship of the distribution of arctic insects to the arctic flora is illustrated by a tabular synopsis of the nature of the flowers, and the distribution of difl'erent arctic plants. This synopsis shows that anemo))hiloua flowers
��diminish in numl>er toward the north, and that the flowers fertilized by flies, bees, and Lepidoptera, bear nearly direct relationship to the dipterous, hymenopterous, and lepidopter- ous fauna of each region. A few flowers, however, which are fertilized by bees farther south, are self-fertilized in the arctic regions : such are the flowers of the two species of Pedicularis found in Spitzbei^en, where care- ful search has failed to discover humble-bees. The author uses this peculiarilj' of Pedicularis to show the inapplicability of Darwin's theory that the deterioriation of species by self-fer- tilization is an explanation of the origin of cross-fertilization by insects. Dr. Aurivillius shows, further, that the colors of arctic flowers tend to confirm what is known of the color- sense of the insects that visit tbem.
H. Hildebrand devotes nearly one hundred pages to a discussion of our knowledge of the art of the lower races of savage people, espe- cially of the Chukchi, Eskimo, Bushmen, Aus- tralians, Melauesiaus, and the people of the stone age in western and northern Europe. He puts aside considerations based on [ihysical or linguistic features, and discusses merely the aesthetic relations of the difl'erent people as evidenced by their more or less artistic produc- tions. From this point of view, the people of Chukchi race, studied by the Vega party, are closely assimilated to the Eskimo ; more so, in- deed, than the pure race characteristics would justify: for it must not be forgotten that the bone-carvings and pictures of the so-called ' sedentary Chukchi ' are mere copies bor- rowed from the art of the Eskimo, to whose mode of life the loss of their deer has driven a portion of a dilferont people, whose normal development and culture away from the coast shows Httle or nothing of such art-work. Their stage of ethnic development ia, however, much the same. The peculiarities of the art of people in this stage, whether exhibited bj- the quaternary specimens from the caves of Perigord, or those of the present day from Bering Strait, are to be ascribed to common features of aesthetic evolution in the mind of man, of which the rude pictures drawn by civilized children offer at once a reminiscence and an example.
In an article which covers ninety-four pages, Nordenskiold himself considers the geological significance of the cosmical material which falls upon the earth's surface. The nebular hyiKithesis of Kant and Laplace is briefly outlined, and the arguments in favor of the existence of matter in the form of ether arc advanced. The author believes that the
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