Bibliographical Notices. 483 



already referred to. These provide interesting reading, and will go 

 far to compensate for the delicienoies of the book in other respects. 



The plalcs seem on the whole well up to the average. In somo 

 of the figures we miss that attention to structural detail which was 

 to be expected from an artist who is at the same time the author of 

 a work on entomology. The beetle represented at fig. 2, pi. ii., as 

 having three-jointed tarsi and six-jointed antenna) gives a very 

 erroneous idea of the characters of the family Teneljrionida), to 

 which it is said to belong. The neuration of the wings is, in some 

 cases also, less accurate than is desirable in a work where the 

 beginner has to rely almost wholly upon the figures for the identi- 

 fication of the species as well as for a knowledge of the structural 

 characters of families. This leads us to notice that the author has 

 introduced into the book a certain number of species which he 

 refers to as new. He figures but docs not describe them, nor does 

 he give any clue as to whore descriptions of them may be found. 

 If he wishes to obtain recognition from the systematic entomolo- 

 gist for the names he has given to these species he would do well 

 to publish brief technical descriptions of them. 



Notwithstanding the defects pointed out we trust that this work 

 may succeed in the purpose for which it was written, of inducing 

 the youths of New Zealand to take a more active interest in 

 entomological science. 



On the Modifications of Oryanisms. 15y David Sxaie. Melbourne: 

 George Kobinson and Co. Loudon : Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 and Co. 



Some idea of the spirit of this book may be gathered from the 

 following sentence : — " Darwin describes the action of natural 

 selection as preservative and accumulative, but properly speaking 

 it is a purely destructive process. It is heredity and not natural 

 selection which is preservative and accumulative." 



In a very vigorous fashion Mr. Syme denies almost every state- 

 ment which Darwin relied on, maintaining that he " has practically 

 abandoned his theory altogether when he admits that the tendency 

 to vary in the same manner is so strong that whole species may be 

 modified without the aid of any form of natural selection." He 

 asserts that " Darwin's language is wanting in precision, and his 

 definitions and theories are variable and contradictory," even to 

 forgetting his own statement of what natural selection is. The 

 survival of the fittest should be the result of natural selection or the 

 struggle for life ; yet Darwin uses the three terms as synonymous. 

 But, according to Mr. Syme, " it is the organism which struggles, 

 not, however, to select this or that variation, but to adapt itself to 

 its environment." Darwin, with good reason (except, perhaps, as to 



