212 Reviews and Notices of BooJcs, 



logy have been most successfull}'^ worked out, whilst the hosts of 

 those little creatures that dwell in our forests, live in our fields 

 become the pests of our houses, our beds, and our food, give a 

 practical value to the knowledge of their habits, which cfinnot be 

 claimed by animals of greater size, and which are more easily 

 observed. The work before us is an illustration of the generally 

 unappreciated labours of the entomologist. There is a little group 

 of moths whose caterpillars swarm in our gardens, attack our 

 beans and peas, and twist themselves curious homes in the leaves 

 of our limes, laburnams, and other trees. These are the larvae of 

 the " British Tortrices." Many of them have been figured and 

 named, but no complete work descriptive of them existed, and 

 Mr. Wilkinson has in this volume supplied the want. He has 

 described, with great accuracy, from original specimens, three 

 hundred species of these insects. As this has been done with the 

 skill of a master, the work must take its place beside the great 

 descriptive works devoted to other families of insects. To the 

 reading public such a work presents no attractions. In passing 

 from page to page it looks like a wearisome repetition of nearly 

 the same forms ; but let no one despise who cannot understand, 

 for in these descriptions lies the very soul of zoological science. 

 Without an accurate apprehension of individual forms, there could 

 be no general law of form, and the great science of Morphology 

 would cease to advance. Every now and then, however, amid the 

 dreary waste of description, we get a pleasant peep into the 

 entomologist's way of life. We find his favorite caterpillars 

 feeding on the ferns of Wimbledon Common, the oaks of New 

 Forest, the hawthorns of Epping Forest, the birches of the banks 

 of Dee, or the heather of Scotch mountains. These "habitats" 

 are suggestive of pleasant rambles amongst the forests, rivers and 

 mountains of our island ; and we cannot but feel that such pur- 

 suits must have an invigorating influence on the mind and body, 

 in addition to their importance in contributing to the advance- 

 ment of human knowledge. — Athenceum. 



The Rudiments of Botany, Structural and Pkysiological. By 

 Christopher Dresser. (Virtue.) — This very modest title intro- 

 duces in many respects one of the most complete works on struc- 

 tural botany in our language. Mr. Dresser is Lecturer on 



