Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 6s. 



THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



BY GRANT ALLEN. 



'There can be no doubt of Mr. Grant Allen's competence as a writer on natural 



history subjects In the present volume he has selected such natural objects as 



may for the most part be met with in any country walk a wild strawberry, a snail-shell, 

 a tadpole, a butterfly, a bird, or a wayside flower the more striking external features 



of which he seeks to explain by the light of evolutionary principles The author 



is as much at home among plants as among animals, and probably his most enjoyable 

 papers are those in which he discourses on the use to the plants themselves of the colours 

 of flowers, the sweetness of fruits, and the hardness of nuts. The essays twenty-three 

 in number are neither long nor deep, but they give a broad general view of the principles 

 and methods of evolution, couched in clear, untechnical, and oftentimes racy language, 

 and are thus admirably adapted for their intended purpose.' SCOTSMAN. 



' Mr. Allen's method of treatment, as explanatory of the scientific revolution known 

 as evolution, gives a sort of personality and human character to the trout or the straw- 

 berry blossom, which invests them with additional charm, and makes many of his pages 

 read more like a fanciful fairy tale than a scientific work. .... Mr. Allen's essays 

 ought to open many a half-closed eye.' MANCHESTER EXAMINER. 



Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 6s. 



VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



Bv GRANT ALLEN. 



These sketches are equally admirable as lessons in science and impressions of country 

 experience. Mr. Allen possesses that genuine feeling for Nature which makes a man find 

 unfailing delight not merely in a survey from the mountain tops and a walk over the breezy 

 moorland, but in the weeds by the roadside and hedge bank.' MANCHESTER EXAMINER. 



' Mr. Allen has followed his " Evolutionist at Large " with another volume much in 

 the same happy style, and dealing with aspects of nature ajlied to those treated in the 

 work just named. The praise we bestowed on the " Evolutionist" may be transferred 

 to " Vignettes from Nature," for the present work is not less instructive or entertaining 

 than its predecessor From our author's point of view, then, we are led by well- 

 nigh a royal road, so smoothly does he conduct his readers over the technique of his 

 subject, to learn something of the phases of nature which the philosophy of Darwin and 



Spencer seek to explain There are thousands who will find in Mr. Allen's pages 



a mass of information, the perusal of which is certain to send them straight to other and 

 larger tomes, by way of continuing the interesting studies to which this book may so 

 happily introduce them.' DUNDEE ADVERTISER. 



' In some of Mr. Allen's Sketches he almost gives the idea that he is playing at being 

 a naturalist ; but he is ever an easy, graceful, and light-hearted observer of nature, with 

 a strong bias towards Spencer and a leaning on Darwin as his chief counsellors and 

 friends. With a love of nature Wordsworthian in its intensity, Mr. Allen goes a hunt- 

 ing over Sussex wolds and downs, and finds meet pastures in Welsh hills and Dorset 



lanes Mr. Allen is zoological, antiquarian, and botanical by turns, but he is never 



one thing for long ; and his varying moods will serve to interest and enchant the reader 

 who, whilst disdaining more solid fare in popular science, will yet listen to the teachings 



of so skilled a mentor as Mr. Allen proves himself to be We have found nothing 



in Mr. Allen's book but what merits praise ; and we may warmly commend it to the 

 attention of all who desire a pleasant text-book of popular zoology and botany.' 

 GLASGOW HERALD. 



'Of the twenty-two essays of which the volume is composed there is not one which 

 dpei not bear the impress of original thought and widely-extended knowledge of natural 

 history -TABLET. 



CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, \7 



