Reviews and Notices of Booh. 211 



and plants, with which farming on this continent is conversant. 

 The history and property of manures, and the application of fer- 

 tilizers is carefully treated. The planting and culture of com, 

 wheat, oats, potatoes, hay, beans and peas, tobacco and cotton, 

 are the topics of successive chaptors. And finally root-crops, to- 

 gether with the leading facts of animal physiology, and the 

 selection and care of stock, receive careful attention. The Ap- 

 pendix contains a list of chemicals and apparatus, with tables of 

 money and weights and measures. The wood-cut illustrations 

 are worthy of all praise. The style is highly finished, clear, and 

 forcible. We regard this book as one of a high order of excel- 

 elnce, and which might wnth advantage be in the hands of the 

 young farmers of Canada. a. f. k. 



The British Tortrices. By S. J. Wilkinson. (Van Voorst.) — 

 The great barrier to an exhaustive study of the animals of the 

 British Islands is its insects. Hence we find naturalists who are 

 tolerably conversant with our Vertebrate animals, our MoUusca 

 and Radiata, who scarcely know a single insect. On the other 

 hand, the naturalist who ventures on the insect kingdom is irre- 

 deemably committed to its study. A lifetime is quite insufficient 

 to get through its various groups. He begins with the beetles, 

 and there he sticks : he does not even become an entomologist ; 

 he is the student of a group, and is dubbed a coleopterist. Thus 

 we have works devoted to his use, and a ' Coleopterist's Manual ' 

 to guide him in his studies. If betakes up butterflies and moths, 

 the same affluence obstructs his progress. He becomes a lepidop- 

 terist, or a micro -lepidopterist; and only by this exclusive atten- 

 tion to a branch can he expect to aid in the development of the 

 science of Entomology. The same is true of the other great 

 groups of insects, of Diptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, and the 

 rest. Thus it is that the reputation of men who have spent a 

 lifetime in the study of animal habits and forms, and made for 

 themselves an undying fame, is scarcely known to the public at 

 all. The amount of accurate observation, logical generalization, 

 and scientific thought, expended on insects alone, is probably as 

 great as that in all other departments of Zoology. Although its 

 practical value may be thought less, it is, nevertheless, in this 

 group of animals that some of the great laws of animal morpho- 



