9S REVIEWS. 



Art. VI.— Genera et Species Staphylinorum. Auctore G. F. Ebichson. 

 Purs prior. Berolini : 1839. Large 8vo. 400 pp. 3 pi. 



It is intended that this work should be a complete Monograph 

 of the family StaphylinidcB, or the genus Staphylinus, Linn. ; 

 and from the talents of the author, and the valuable materials at 

 his command contained in the rich collection of Berlin, it 

 promises to be as perfect a work as can be produced upon the 

 subject. The plates are in outline, and represent the struc- 

 tural peculiarities of the genera. 



Six hundred and forty-eight species are described in this 

 first part : but we are sorry to perceive that the author is not 

 acquainted with the great work of Stephens. 



Art. VII. — An Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects. By 

 J. O. Westwood, F.L.S., &c. Longman. 8vo. 



Mr. Westwood's Introduction has reached the fifteenth part, 

 the Mandibulata and Lepidoptera being nearly completed : 

 the Linna^an Diptera and Hemiptera still remain to be des- 

 cribed. 



Art. VIII. — A History of the British Ferns. By Edward Newman, 

 F.L.S. London: Van Voorst. 1840. 8vo. pp. 104. 



It affords us much satisfaction to find Mr. Van Voorst 

 extending to the botanical kingdom the circle of scientific 

 treatises, in which, as publisher, he has been eminently suc- 

 cessful. A History of our Forest Trees is in progress by Mr. 

 Selby ; while the work before us, treating on a more lowly 

 tribe, — our indigenous Ferns, may vie, though not in bulk, 

 yet in intrinsic merit, with the late-published ' Histories ' in 

 British Zoology, that have with justice earned so high a re- 

 putation. 



Mr. Newman sets outs with a remark, the purport of 

 which, if more generally attended to than it has been, would 

 prevent so much confusion and discrepancy existing between 

 the accounts of different systematic writers on the protean 

 tribes of which this volume treats. 



" I think no "botanist, who allows his memory to turn to the varieties he 

 has ohserved of Lastraa dilatata and Polyslichum aculeatum, will for a mo- 

 ment deny this ; and yet what hotanist has ever presumed to treat of the 

 cutting of the frond in Ferns as of any other than the highest importance ? 

 T entertain a different opinion. I think that mere cutting of frond is of 

 no more value than colour in fowls or cows, and therefore should not be 



