2. Manufacture of Gas for illumination, from Water.-M. Jobard has succeeded in giving to hydrogen a high illuminating power; the gas burns with a white and brilliant flame equal to thirty six candles of six to the pound. This gas was charged with carbon by passing it through a cylinder containing about two quarts of oil of gas tar; but as the gas deposited its mechanically suspended carbon, M. Jobard caused hydrogen gas obtained by the distillation (decomposition?) of water to take up hydrocarburets produced by the distillation of coal gas at the moment of formation twice or thrice as much gas could be obtained as by the ordinary method, and the gas needed no purifying, especially when fish or other oils were employed. The combined gases contain carburets of hydrogen, 57; oxide of of carbon, 28; and free hydrogen, 15. One hundred and eleven feet of gas were produced from every pound of oil. 3. Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.—The following persons constitute the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The Vice President of the United States. The Chief Justice of the United States. The Mayor of the city of Washington. Messrs. Evans, Pennybacker, and Breese of the Senate. Messrs. R. D. Owen, W. J. Hough, H. W. Hilliard, of the House. R. Choate, Mass., G. Hawley, N. J., Richard Rush, Pa., William C. Preston, S. C., A. D. Bache, and J. G. Totten of Washington. Preparations are making to go on at once with the erection of buildings, and the organization of the institution. 4. Wollaston Medal.-The Wollaston Medal has been presented by the Geological Society of London to Mr Lonsdale, well known for his various contributions to Palæontology, and especially in the difficult department of fossil corals. 5. Geological Society of France; (L'Institut, No. 655, July 2, 1846, p. 252.)—This society held its annual session at Alais (Gard), on the 30th of August, this place being selected on account of its great Geological interest, as it combines the richest coal beds of France, mines of iron and lead, the jurassic formation and the lower creta ceous. 6. Prof. Louis Agassiz.-This distinguished European naturalist arrived at Boston about the first of October. We learn with pleasure that he will spend several years among us, in order thoroughly to understand our natural history. M. Desor, his companion in the glaciers of Switzerland, and Mr. Dinkel, the artist of his beautiful plates, are soon to join him in this country. 7. M. de Verneuil has left for Paris, but will again return after a year. 8. The Ray Society.-We call attention to the prospectus of this useful society, which will be found among our advertisements. 9. The Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, held its seventh annual session at New York, as previously announced, on the 2d of September and the week thereafter. We publish in the present number of this Journal, two papers which were read at this meeting; and further notice of their doings will be given on another occasion. 10. The British Association met at Southampton on the 10th of September, under the direction of Sir Roderick I. Murchison. We understand from a gentleman who has been present on several previous occasions, that this meeting was one of uncommonly high character. Their proceedings have reached us through the kindness of Mr. Lyell, but too late for notice in this volume. 11. Museum of Economic Geology in Great Britan; (from the Anniv. Address by L. HORNER, Esq., before the Geol. Soc. of London, Quar. Jour. Geol, p. 152.)-In his Anniversary Address of 1840, Dr. Buckland adverted to the recent establishment, by the Government of that time, of the Museum of Economic Geology. It not only received encouragement from their successors, but has been placed by them on a more enlarged and comprehensive plan. During the last year the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland has been transferred from the direction of the Master General of the Ordnance to that of the Chief Commissioner of her Majesty's Woods and Works; and that Survey and the Museum of Economic Geology are now united under one management. The establishment is supported by an annual parliamentary grant, which in the last session amounted to 88501., including the Museum of Economic Geology in Dublin; and large premises are about to be built by Government in a central part of the metropolis for the accommodation of the several departments, the extension of the Museum, and the accomplishment of other useful plans that are in contemplation. It is a reproach to former Governments that the formation of such an institution should have been left to recent times, in a country deriving so much wealth, importance and power from its mineral treasures. When we consider the high qualifications of the officers selected by the Government for carrying out this scheme, we may look forward with confidence to their rendering important services to geological science, as well as to mining interests, the arts and manufactures. Sir Henry De la Beche is, as you are aware, the Director-general; and his indefatigable zeal and exertions, and above all the judgment shown by him in his recommendations of the other officers, cannot be too highly estimated. Mr. Andrew Ramsay is Director of the Survey of SECOND SERIES, Vol. II, No. 6.-Nov., 1846. 57 Great Britain; Captain James, of the Royal Engineers, is Director of that of Ireland; Professor Edward Forbes is Palæontologist, and Mr. Warrington Smyth, Mining Geologist for the United Kingdom; and there is reason to believe that Dr. Hooker will be appointed to the department of Botany.* Mr. John Phillips is engaged in the Survey of the North of England, and one laboratory of the Museum of Economic Geology is under the direction of Mr. Richard Phillips, one of the founders of this Society, and another under the direction of Dr. Lyon Playfair. There are besides several able officers in different departments. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. The Sidereal Messenger, a Monthly Journal, devoted to Astronomical Science. 4to. Monthly. 8 pp. each, with engravings. Cincinnati, O. Price $3 a year.-Prof. O. M. Mitchel, the able and enterprising director of the Cincinnati Observatory, has undertaken a periodical work, whose title we have cited above. Its object, as stated in the prospectus, is "to record in a plain and simple form, the results of the researches made with the great achromatic refractor of the observatory, to present the earliest astronomical intelligence from all parts of the world,—to furnish to our countrymen, in their own language, the most interesting articles from foreign astronomical journals, to excite an interest among the people in the elevating study of astronomy, and to give a permanent support to the Institution under whose auspices the publication is made." Four numbers are already issued, containing the articles named below, besides various other interesting notices. Account of the Cincinnati Observatory, and the Great Refractor. Account of Biela's Double Comet. Maedler on the Central Sun. Prof. Loomis on the Physical Constitution of the Moon. Extraordinary Phenomena observed during the Total Eclipse of the Sun, July 7, 1842. Orbitual Motion of the Double Stars. Observations on Double Stars, made with the Cincinnati Refractor. This Journal, the first on our Continent, devoted solely to astronomy, promises to be highly useful to the science of the country, and reflects great credit on the city of its birth. We trust it will be liberally supported. 2. The Trees of America, native and foreign, pictorially and botanically delineated, and scientifically and popularly described, etc., illustrated by numerous engravings; by D. J. BROWNE, New York, 1846, Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. large 8vo, pp. 520.-This is the work of a * Dr. Hooker's appointment has since taken place. person truly fond of his subject, and who has evidently devoted no little attention to it. The wood-cuts are pretty good, the typography and paper are handsome, and the volume contains much well selected and some original popular matter. The author leaves us in much doubt as to the extent of the field he means to embrace. Though we find no statement restricting the general title "Trees of America," we presume, on the whole, that those of the United States only are intended which may be termed par excellence American, in the same way that the continental title is applied to our citizens abroad. What is meant by the "foreign trees of America," is not so clear, since Mr. Browne has omitted many of the common hardy exotics cultivated among us, while he has given such as the Pistachio-nut, the Paraguay Tea, the Prunus avium, of Europe, (which stands in his book under the name of "The Wild Cherry tree," to mislead the general reader,) the Laurus nobilis, or True Laurel, and lastly the Camphor-tree, which is surely "foreign" enough. On the other hand, the greater part of our Thorns, our wild Crab-trees, the Southern Prickley Ash, two of our Rhododendrons, and a large portion of our commonest taller shrubs are entirely unnoticed; not that shrubs do not fall within the range of the work; for the low Canadian Barberry, the Esculus macrostachya and the Ilex vomitoria, &c., are given in full. Upon examination we find the book closes abruptly with the Elm family; the Amentaceous and Coniferous trees, that is, our principal forest trees, being left to the contingency of another "supplementary volume," to be published or not, as circumstances may warrant ;-which we suspect is not exactly according to the terms of subscription. We should not have remarked upon this, nor upon the singular notion of making the Oaks, Hickories and Pines play a supplementary part to Oranges, Almonds, Pomegranates, Myrtles, Figs and Camphor-trees, in a work on the "trees of this country more complete and extensive than had hitherto been published," if there had been any indication upon the title-page or cover, or even an explicit statement in the preface, that this is only the first volume of a work on our trees, and in itself incomplete. This is "a trick of the trade," for which perhaps the author himself is not directly responsible. That we do not consider Mr. Browne as high botanical authority will not be surprising, when it is seen that he describes the Ohio Buckeye as a variety of the common Horse Chestnut, the Rhus glabra as a variety of the Rhus typhina, the Robinia hispida or Bristly Locust as a variety of the pseudacacia or common Locust-tree; states his confi. dent belief that the Choke Cherry and the Wild Black Cherry (Cerasus virginiana and C. serotina) are one and the same species; confounds in the same way all our species of Ash under Fraxinus americana, and all our Elms, even the Wahoo, and Slippery Elm, under Ulmus amer icana. Some of these mistakes are copied from Loudon; but an Amer. ican writer on the trees of his own country, who professes to exercise his own judgment on these points, should have corrected such obvious errors, instead of adding to them. Some liberty is taken with the poetry as well as the botany. A part of those beautiful lines— "Wise with the lore of centuries, What tales, if there were tongues in trees, Those giant oaks could tell," We are "conveyed" to the Pittsfield Elm, without a sign to indicate the change. The fruit of Crataegus spathulata is said to be of "the smallness of a grain of mustard-seed, (p. 274.) The venerable Hales is said to be the author of "Vegetable Statistics"-instead of Vegetable Statics. Mr. Browne, following Michaux, says, "The wood of Olea americana is excessively hard, and difficult to cut and split: hence the provincial name of Devil-wood," (p. 382.) An insufficient reason, one would think, for the bestowal of such an ungracious cognomen. have heard a better and more probable explanation,-viz. that the wood in burning snaps loudly, throwing the fragments explosively from the hearth. We should like to know our author's authority for the following curious statement respecting the Sassafras-tree. "The most interesting historical recollection connected with this tree is, that it may be said to have led to the discovery of America; as it was its strong fragrance smelt by Columbus that encouraged him to persevere when his crew were in a state of mutiny, and enabled him to convince them that land was not far off," (p. 417.) Acute olfactories the great navigator must have had, to snuff the fragrance of Sassafras groves in Florida, more than five hundred miles off! Besides, now-a-days, the flowers of Sassafras are almost scentless. With the greatest propriety does the author say that he "feels called upon to acknowledge that he is particularly indebted to Mr. Loudon for a large share of his work, taken from the Arboretum Britannicum, and to Dr. Thaddeus W. Harris, for many valuable extracts from his Report on the Insects of Massachusetts injurious to vegetation." From the latter copious abstracts of the highest interest have been very freely taken; indeed nowhere, beyond Dr. Harris's own volume, will so large an amount of his invaluable researches be found embodied, as in Mr. Browne's work. A. GR. 3. Outlines of Structural and Physiological Botany; by ARTHUR HENFREY, F. L. S., etc. With numerous illustrations. In three parts. Part I, Elementary Structures. Part II, Organs of Vegetation. pp. 106, 12mo. London, 1846. Van Voorst.-The third part, "containing the Organs of Reproduction and General Physiology," is doubtless by this time published, completing this compendious but exceedingly |