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The lava was at a light-red heat, and flowed into the sea with a velocity of two or three miles per hour. And yet this point is forty miles from the source of the stream, and at least twenty-five miles from the lowest point to which the "fissure" in Mauna Loa can possibly extend. Therefore the lava flows twenty-five miles at least, without receiving any heat from the interior of the earth, and yet is still of a light-red heat. It will be remembered, of course, that the stream is covered over with solid lava all the way from the source to within a few feet of the sea, with the exception of a small opening here and there, once in a mile perhaps.

Rev. T. COAN adds, under date of Hilo, Hawaii, Nov. 25, 1859.-"The old lake of fusion in Kilauea is slowly enlarging, and the area around it is subsiding. Probably it may in time resume its old size of half a mile in diameter. Recent visitors have found it active. On one occasion it was thought to throw up jets to the height of 70 feet.

The present eruption has now been in progress ten months, and our last advices report it still active. Several streams have fallen into the ocean along the coast of Kona. These are of different widths, and some of them are separated miles from each other. A small village, Kibele, has been covered of late with the lava, and a large and valuable fish-pond filled up. The people in Kibele pulled down their houses, and also the church, on the approach of the lava stream, and carried off the materials. Just above the church the fiery stream parted, flowed along on each side of the ground where the church had stood, reunited below it, and continued in one stream to the sea. This fact struck the Hawaiians as marvellous, and they regretted having removed their house of worship.

During the early stages of this eruption there were many splendid exhibitions along the line of flow. Canals, cataracts, lakes, fountains and jets of fusion were seen along the slope of the mountain. Forests were consumed, rocks were rent, loud and startling detonations were heard, and the heavens were shrouded with a pall of darkness. Now, and for a long season past, little or no fire is seen, except where the red lava pours into the sea. Here a broken line of fusion is seen coming out from under its self-made counterpane of hardened lava, and pouring down the face of a low and cragged precipice into the ocean, keeping up a constant boiling and sending up clouds of vapor into the air.

The central parts of Kilauea are more quiet than any other part of the crater. We have occasional earthquakes. Two shocks occurred in February, one in July, and two in November of the current year."

BOOK NOTICES.

1. Trübner's Bibliographical Guide to American Literature: a classed list of books, published in the United States of America during the last forty years. With Bibliographical Introduction, Notes and Alphabetical Index. Compiled and edited by NICHOLAS TRÜBNER. London, 1859. 8vo, 554 pp. This work is beyond all question the best guide which we have to recent American literature and science. Not only is it better than all other bibliographical works of a similar scope but it is excellent in itself. Our limits permit us to mention only one of its most valuable features. Special attention has been bestowed on works in natural science, not only those which appear with an author's name, and are accordingly easy to trace, but more particularly on serial works, such as scientific journals, the transactions of learned societies, and reports of the

state and national legislatures, which are often very difficult to discover by the ordinary apparatus of the trade. Mr. Trübner not only mentions what constitute complete sets of such works; but he enumerates the contents of the several volumes, so that by means of his excellent index a multitude of articles and essays, often overlooked, are brought to the knowledge of every student. This book should be owned by every bookbuyer.

D. C. G.

2. Manual of Public Libraries, Institutions and Societies in the United States and British Provinces of North America; by WILLIAM J. RHEES, chief clerk of the Smithsonian Institution. 8vo, pp. 687. Lippincott. Philadelphia, 1859.-This volume contains a great amount of useful information on Public Libraries, and gives evidence of much labor in its compilation. The list of libraries in the various States extends to over three thousand titles. In a second edition the Author will be able to supply some obvious deficiencies which are inseparable from the first cast of such a work. 3. The New American Cyclopedia: a popular Dictionary of general Knowledge; edited by GEO. RIPLEY and CHAS. A. DANA. Vol. I-VIII. 8vo. New York and London: D. Appleton & Co.-Since our former notice of this Cyclopedia it has advanced rapidly, until now we have before us eight volumes of eight hundred pages each, the last article being on the too famous HAYNAU. Such promptness in issuing so large a mass of elaborately prepared matter speaks well not only for the energy of the publishers and the industry of its editors, but also of the public appreciation of the work. Like its predecessor, the "Encyclopedia Americana," 1829-47, by Dr. LIEBER and others, it gives a satisfactory response to almost all questions coming within the range of its plan. The New Cyclopedia, however, besides its greater range of topics, has the advantage derived from a vast progress in many departments of knowledge, developed by a numerous corps of contributors skilled each in his own speciality.

In looking over its articles with a peculiar reference to our own departments, we are often tempted to linger among its miscellaneous topics, so rich in various and interesting information. The fine arts, religion, law, politics and war, share our attention with history and biography, ancient and modern, foreign and American, including persons still living, with sketches of events within their respective eras; geography, with the physical and picturesque features and the mineral treasures of particular countries; common and useful arts, agriculture, mechanics, and their various productions; gas lighting, gun-powder, its history, manufacture and uses; caoutchouc, gutta percha, and kindred topics of technical chemistry, with their diversified applications, and a multitude of other subjects, more or less practical and interesting to society at large.

In the American Cyclopedia the articles on science are numerous and valuable, and elevate the work to the character of a compendium of modern science. These articles are in most cases written with decided ability, and evidently by persons who are familiar with the topics which they discuss. While many of the less important subjects are presented with luminous brevity, others are more fully expanded. Among these are many topics of natural history; Chemistry is presented with its equivalents and laws of combination illustrated by many of its modern discoveries and practical applications; of the latter an example is found in the full account of the manufacture of gelatine, of beer and bricks, and

in the ample history of gas lighting. Geology, voltaic electricity, magnetism, and other departments of pure or applied science, are treated with reasonable fulness. As a literary work the Cyclopedia is written in a pure and chaste style, and exhibits the candor and fairness which should ever adorn a record of universal knowledge.

B. S.

An Introduction to Practical Pharmacy: designed as a text-book for the Student, &c.; by EDWARD PARRISH. Philadelphia. 2d edition. 246 illustrations. 8vo, pp. 720. Blanchard & Lea, 1859.-A well arranged and carefully prepared treatise, adapted to the state of this art in the United States.

Elements of Inorganic Chemistry, including the applications of the Science in the Arts; by Thos. GRAHAM, F.R.S., L. and E. Edited by HENRY WATTS, B.A., and ROBT. BRIDGES, M.D. 2d American edition in one volume. 233 woodcuts, 8vo, pp. 852. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1858.-The American publishers issued the 430 first pages of this volume in 1852 under the editorship of Dr. Bridges. The remainder is reproduced without alteration from the English edition.

Nautical Monographs, No. I. (Washington Observatory) Oct. 1859. The winds at sea, their mean direction, and annual average duration from each of the four quarters. With four plates of diagrams of winds and calms. 4to, pp. 8. By Lt.

M. F. MAURY.

Caloric: its Mechanical, Chemical and Vital Agencies in the Phenomena of Nature; by SAMUEL J. METCALF, M.D. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 630 and 481. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Announced

A Dictionary of English Surnames; by JOHN HENRY ALEXANDER, Esq., of Baltimore, Maryland.-The work will be comprehended in about one thousand pages, and it will be sent to press directly after the necessary commercial and technical arrangements can be made.

Little, Brown & Company, of Boston, propose to publish by subscription a series of photo-lithographic plates of the Fossil Footprints found on the Connecticut River Sandstone, prepared by the late Dr. JAMES DEANE, of Greenfield, in one volume, 4to. Price $5.00.-The work will be issued under the superintendence of T. T. BOUVE, Esq., A. A. GOULD, M.D., and HENRY I. BOWDITCH, M.D., and for the benefit of the family of Dr. Deane, and will be published in the best style, similar to Prof. Agassiz's "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States." Two hundred subscribers are required.

OBITUARY.

Mr. GUSTAVUS WURDEMANN died on the 29th of Sept. 1859 at Swedesboro, N. J., aged 41 years. Mr. Wurdemann was employed in the U. S. Coast Survey since 1837, in the last twelve years of his life principally as a tidal and meteorological observer in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. The observations made by him are of great value for their completeness and faithfulness. The short intervals of time left to him by the confining nature of his duties he employed with much success in collecting objects of natural history, and as he was mostly stationed on parts of our coast seldom visited by naturalists, he succeeded in obtaining several species new to science and still more which were new to the fauna of the United States. His collections are in the museums of the Smithsonian Institution and of Prof. Agassiz in Cambridge. Most of his zoological acquisitions have been already published to the world. The largest of our North American herons, Ardea Wurdemanni, was discovered by him. JAMES P. ESPY, one of the most successful meteorologists of our time, died in Cincinnati, on the 24th of January, after a short illness, in the 75th year of his age. We expect to present a notice of his life in our May number.

JEAN-FRED.-LUDW. HAUSMANN, the eminent mineralogist, died at Göttingen, Dec. 26, 1859, aged 77 years 10 months.

THE

AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.

[SECOND SERIES.]

ART. XXVI.-On the Origination and Distribution of Vegetable Species:-Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania; by Dr. JOSEPH D. HOOKER.

(Continued from p. 25.)

4. On the General Phenomena of the Distribution of Plants in Time.

A THIRD class of facts relates to the antiquity of vegetable forms and types on the globe, as evidenced by fossil plants. The chief facts relating to these are the following:

31. The earliest Flora of which we know much scientifically, is that of the Carboniferous formation. We have indeed plants that belonged to an earlier vegetation, but they do not differ in any important respects from those of the carboniferous formation. Now the ascertained features of the coal vegetation may be summed up very briefly. There existed at that time,

Filices, in the main entirely resembling their modern representatives, and some of which may even be generically, though not specifically, identical with them.

Lycopodiaceae; the same in the main characters as those now existing, and, though of higher specialization of stem, of greater stature, of different species, and perhaps also genera, from modern Lycopodiaceae, yet identical with these in the structure of their reproductive organs and their contents, and in the minute anatomy of their tissues.

SECOND SERIES, Vol. XXIX, No. 87.-MAY, 1860)

Conifera. The evidence of this order is derived chiefly from the anatomical characters of the Dicotyledonous wood so abundantly found in the coal, and which seems to be identical in all important respects with the wood of modern genera of that order, to which must be added the probability of Trigonocarpon and Næggerathia being Gymnospermous, and allied to Salisburia.* On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that no Coniferous strobili have been hitherto detected in the Carboniferous formation.

Cycadea. Some fragments of wood, presenting a striking similarity in anatomical characters to that of Cycadea, have been found in the carboniferous series.

In the absence of the fructification of Calamites, Calamodendron, Halonia, Anabathra, etc., there are no materials for any safe conclusions as to their immediate affinities, beyond that they all seem to be allied to Ferns or Lycopodiaceae. But the same can hardly be said of the affinities of Volkmannia,† Antholites, and others, which have been referred, with more or less probability, to Angiospermons Dicotyledons.

The Permian Flora is for the most part specifically distinct from the Carboniferous, but many of its genera are the same. The prevalent types are Gymnospermous Dicotyledons, especially Cycade, and a great abundance of Tree-ferns.

The New Red Sandstone, or Trias group, presents plants more analogous to those of the Oolite than to those of the Carboniferous epoch, but they have also much in common with the latter. Voltzia, a remarkable genus of Conifers, appears to be peculiar to this period.

In the Lias numerous species of Cycadea have been found, with various Conifers and many Ferns. No other Dicotyledonous or any Monocotyledonous plants have as yet been discovered, but it is difficult to believe that none such should have existed at a period when wood-boring and herb-devouring insects, belonging to modern genera, were extremely abundant, as has been proved by the researches of Mr. Brodie and Mr. Westwood.‡

The Oolite contains numerous Cycade, Conifera, and Ferns, and more herbivorous genera of insects; and here Monocotyledonous vegetables are recognizable in Podocarya and other Pandaneous plants. A cone of Pinus has been discovered in the Purbeck, and one of Araucaria in the inferior Oolite of Somersetshire.

* Phil. Trans., 1855, p. 149.

See Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, May, 1854.

These insects include species of the existing common European genera, Elater, Gryllus, Hemerobius, Ephemera, Libellula, Panorpa, and Carabus. Of all conspicnous tribes of plants the Cycadea, Filices, Conifera, and Lycopodiaceae perhaps support the fewest insects, and the association of the above-named insects with a vegetation consisting solely or mainly of plants of these orders is quite inconceivable.

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