484 Miscellaneous. 
wize and colour), was not disposed to give the environment much 
weight. 
“One of the most singular of Darwin’s conclusions” is, says 
Mr. Syme, “that it is the female that selects the male, and not the 
male that selects the female;” yet on the next page we find that 
“the female selects the handsomest and most valiant male:” further, 
that the sexual struggle is not between the males, but “is rather a 
struggle between the opposite sexes.” Much that has been written 
on this subject is purely conjectural. 
The following will probably be new to many :—“ Butterflies put 
up their wings and expose their underside to the action of the sun; ” 
they “have their brilliant non-protective tints on the upper surface 
of their wings, while the underside is almost invariably protectively 
coloured.” Again, ‘when chased,” we are told, ‘they suddenly 
disappear by alighting on some object coloured like themselves, 
whereby they escape observation, and so confident are they that 
they remain motionless even when an enemy approaches within a 
few inches of them.” 
One of the objections to natural selection—unnoticed by 
Mr. Syme, but not unnoticed by Darwin himself—is the diversity 
of means for the same end. 
The fertilization of plants by insects is discussed at length. 
Darwin believed that their relationship was mutually beneficial. 
Mr. Syme, on the contrary, asserts “ that insects of all kinds are in 
various ways destructive to plants,” and he denies that flowers owe 
their conspicuous colours to insects. 
There is no date and there is no index to this book, which only 
consists of 164 pages. There are several misspellings—such as 
“englossa,” ‘“‘Artimia,” * strachys,” “ belliafolia,” ‘ decimination,” 
&e.; printed in London, and the author probably in Melbourne, 
may sufficiently account for such errors. Nevertheless we shall be 
glad to see Mr. Syme again; right or wrong, his book is undoubt- 
edly suggestive. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Some Anatomical Characters of Hyperoodon rostratus. 
By M. E.-L. Bouvier. 
I nave had the opportunity of studying, at the marine laboratory 
of Saint-Vaast, a female Hyperoodon, measuring 7-20 m., in length, 
which had stranded on the beach near Fort de la Hougue. 
The animal had a short time previously given birth to a young 
one; 1ts mamme were full of milk, the internal organs of generation 
