INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS 



By CHARLES DARWIN, F.R.S., etc. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 

 lvol., 12mo. Cloth Price, $2.00. 



" Mr. Darwin's book may be held up as a model of what a treatise should be that 

 is addressed to intelligent readers, a majority of whom, it is to be presumed, have no 

 special acquaintance with the matter under consideration. In style it is strongly 

 marked with Darwinian characteristics. The opening passage, indeed, allowing for 

 difference of subject, is drawn up almost precisely in the same way as that which ushers 

 in Chapter I. of the 'Origin of Species.' We have laid before us the circumstances 

 that led the author to pursue his researches in the first instance, so far back as i860; 

 then, step by step, we are treated to the history of those researches ; fact is added to 

 fact, inference to inference, till at length the body of evidence, direct and indirect, be- 

 comes so overwhelming, that there is as little chance of controverting Mr. Darwin's 

 conclusions as there is for a fly to escape when once it has been caught in the cruel 

 embrace of a sun-dew. The modesty, the perfect candor, the scrupulous care to ac- 

 knowledge the labors of others, even in the most trifling particulars, are as apparent in 

 this as in the rest of Mr. Darwin's books. These Darwinian characteristics, as we 

 venture to call them, are only equaled by the apparently inexhaustible patience with 

 which he has pursued his observations and experiments throughout many years."— 

 London A thenceutn. 



"In this work Mr. Darwin's patient and painstaking methods of investigation ap- 

 pear to the best possible advantage. It is impossible to read it without enthusiastic 

 admiration for the ingenuity which he displays in devising tests to determine the char- 

 acteristics of the plants, the peculiarities of which he is studying, and, as is always the 

 case with him, he presents the conclusions arrived at in language so lucid that he who 

 reads simply for information is sure to be attracted and charmed quite as much as the 

 professional student." — N. Y. Times. 



"As a model of scientific inquiry, his work will scarcely find a parallel in any lan- 

 guage. It is utterly free from the diffuse verbiage which corrupts the style of so many 

 of the prominent German naturalists, and from the subtile refinements which so often 

 throw an air of romance around the physical speculations of French writers. In Eng- 

 lish scientific literature it has no superior in acuteness of thought, candor of judgment, 

 and felicity of expression. 



*' Mr. Darwin's manner is equally remote from the vehemence ot the polemic and the 

 indifference of the cold-blooded observer. His pages are warm with deep human inter- 

 est, but an interest inspired by the love of truth and knowledge, not by personal passion. 

 His anxious endeavor for accurate observation is evinced in every line of his writings, 

 and, if he clings to theories with the earnestness of a discoverer, he clings still more de- 

 votedly to the facts of Nature which he undertakes to interpret. The scope of his ex- 

 periments illustrates the rare fertility of his mind, as well as his wonderful patience. 

 The thoroughness of their execution is fully equal to the ingenuity of their conception. 

 No detail appears to escape his notice, no inadvertence mars the harmony of his state- 

 ment, no unwise haste disturbs the clearness and serenity of his judgment, and even if 

 one could be indifferent to his volume as a scientific production, it must still be admired 

 as a masterpiece of intellectual workmanship." — N. Y. Tribune. 



D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y. 



