38^ Bibliographical Notices, 



views, we nevertheless cordially welcome his work as a most im- 

 portant and interesting contribution to our knowledge of the physical 

 geography of the sea. The reader will find in it a most interesting 

 discussion of some of the most important questions connected with 

 the distribution of marine animals ; and many of the statements 

 connecting these with the elucidation of facts in geology and physical 

 geography will be found exceedingly valuable. We look forward 

 with much impatience for the appearance of the second part, com- 

 pleting the work (which is announced to be published in December), 

 as it will contain the results of Dr. Wallich's investigations into the 

 structure and life-history of the Rhizopodal Fauna of the deep sea ; 

 and from the care with which his researches have been carried on, 

 we have every reason to expect a highly valuable contribution towards 

 the history of those singular creatures. This portion of his subject 

 is barely commenced in the part before us ; but, from the few pages 

 here devoted to it, and the lettering of the beautiful plates appended 

 to the work, nearly all of which illustrate the Rhizopoda, it would 

 appear that Dr. Wallich's researches have led him to important 

 systematic results. 



On the various Contrivances hy which British and Foreign Orchids 

 are Fertilized by Insects^ and on the good effects of Intercrossing. 

 By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. London : John Murray. 

 12mo. 1862. 



Among flowering plants there are few which excite our interest more 

 than the Orchids, whether we consider merely the singularities of 

 their external appearance, or the mysterious amalgamation of their 

 male and female organs in a single central column. The strange and 

 often grotesque forms of the flowers (simulating, as they frequently 

 do, certain members of the animal kingdom), the great beauty of 

 some species, and the remarkable epiphytal habits of others are 

 quite sufficient to attract the attention of both the botanist and the 

 horticulturist to these plants; and when we add to this that the 

 above-mentioned amalgamation of the sexual organs of the flowers, 

 instead of facilitating impregnation, as might have been expected, 

 really seems to place obstacles in the way of the performance of this 

 function, the interest excited by these plants will reach its climax. 

 It is Mr. Darwin's object in the present work to clear up the mystery 

 hanging over the process of impregnation in the Orchids, in order to 

 apply the results thus obtained to the support of certain opinions ad- 

 vanced in his book on the * Origin of Species.' In the practical part 

 of his task, the explanation of the mode of fertihzation, it seems to us 

 that he is completely successful ; but whether the arguments deduced 

 therefrom on the general question be equally valid, is another 

 affair. 



It has long been supposed by some botanists, amongst whom Mr. 

 Darwin cites Sprengel and Robert Brown, that in the fertilization of 

 Orchids insects play a not unimportant part ; but, as remarked by 

 our author, from their assuming the poUeu to be applied to the im- 



