Dec. 24, (885 J 



NA TURE 



171 



now fills in the house. No remains of cats have beea 

 found in Pompeii, thoagli tlie bones of horses, dogs, and 

 goats have been discovered, and some writers have im- 

 puted this to the superior intelligence and foresight of the 

 former animal, which made its escape in time, whereas 

 its absence is due to the fact that there were no cats in 

 the city at the period of its destruction. 



The cat was first domesticated in Egypt, and appears 

 to have been introduced into Europe in the fifth or sixth 

 century of the Christian era. It is first mentioned under 

 its distinctive name, Catiis, by Palladius, and somewhat 

 later by the ecclesiastical historian, Evagrius Scholasticus. 

 The author believes that the introduction of the cat fol- 

 lowed the migration of the rat, Miis ra/lits, from Asia 

 into Europe, where it seems to have been altogether 

 unknown in classical times. 



As an illustration from the vegetable kingdom we may 

 take the discussion on the origin of the eatable chestnut. 

 The name is traced to Asia Minor, and that it was not 

 indigenous to Europe is shown by the fact " that neither 

 Greeks nor Romans had an individual name for the 

 chestnut-tree and its fruit." It is further argued that, 

 "If the Greeks had found the chestnut-tree e.xisting in 

 their future country when they first arrived, they would 

 certainly have mentioned the fruit in their legends. But 

 we only hear of the acorns of the dnis, the esculent oak ; 

 and the aborigines, such as the wild Arcadians in their 

 mountains and woods, are always called acorn-eaters, 

 even by the oracles. When Hesiod describes the bless- 

 ings of peace and justice, the earth bringing forth fruits, 

 the oak bearing acorns, the bees furnishing honey, and 

 the sheep yielding its fleece — would he have forgotten to 

 mention the chestnut, if it had then grown on the moun- 

 tains, bestowing sweet fruit on mankind ? And would 

 the Latin poets, when describing the Golden Age, have 

 hmited themselves to mentioning arbutus-fruit, straw- 

 berries, cornel-berries, blackberries, and acorns ? That 

 the regions south of the Caucasus, and the northern sea- 

 board of Asia Minor, bring forth all kinds of nuts and 

 chestnuts in great abundance, is proved by the unanimous 

 testimony of travellers, ancient and modern. . . . From 

 these regions chestnuts came overland through Thrace, 

 Macedonia, and Thessaly to Eubcea, after which island 

 they were called Eubcean nuts at Athens." 



The chief faults of this book are due to the want of any 

 acquaintance with systematic natural history on the part 

 of either author or editor. This has led to many errors 

 of nomenclature and a most confusing arrangement of sub- 

 jects. Beginning with a chapter on the horse, we pass on 

 to the vine, fig, and olive, and then back to asses and 

 mules. Then comes "stone architecture," followed by 

 " beer " and " butter." After a number of vegetables, 

 trees, fruits, and flowers are discussed, we come to fowls, 

 pigeons, and other domestic birds ; then more fruit-trees ; 

 then the cat and the buffalo, followed by the hop and 

 grain-bearing plants. As illustrations of the want of some 

 technical knowledge of natural history we have the 

 prickly Ruscus aculeatus, instead of the glossy-leaved 

 Riiscus racemosus, given as the Alexandrian laurel ; the 

 cyitsus of the ancients, a shrub used extensively as fodder 

 for cattle, and rightly identified as the Medicago arborea, 

 confounded with the laburnum, an ornamental tree of a 

 totally different character. The Virginian creeper (^Am- 



pclopsis Itcdcracea) is confounded with another American 

 plant, the fox-grape {Vitis labrusca), while the Lombardy 

 poplar, a native of Western Asia, is said to have been 

 brought from the Mississipi Valley. 



Being evidently quite unacquainted with the discoveries 

 of Darwin, the author greatly exaggerates the changes 

 produced by man in the flora of Europe, considering it to 

 offer a parallel case to that of St. Helena, whei'e the in- 

 digenous vegetation has been almost wholly extirpated 

 and replaced by plants from other countries. The inca- 

 pacity of archaic insular forms to compete with the 

 dominant races developed in the great continents is sup- 

 posed to obtain equally in a portion of one of these ancient 

 continental areas ; and thus, the extensive development 

 of certain useful or ornamental cultivated plants in 

 Southern Europe is mistaken for the substitution of a 

 new flora of a totally distinct type. That this is his belief 

 is shown by the following passage : — 



" Almost everything that strikes the northern traveller 

 on crossing the Alps as novel and agreeable — the quiet 

 plastic beauty of the vegetation, the characteristic forms 

 of the landscape and animals, nay even the geological 

 structure (in so far as it has become exposed by changes 

 in its organic covering, and has then felt the effects of 

 light and atmospheric agencies) — is a product of civilisa- 

 tion brought about by manifest transformations during 

 long periods of time." 



Notwithstanding a few blemishes such as those now 

 indicated, the student of philology and of the early history 

 of domesticated animals and cultivated plants will find 

 this volume full of curious information ; while there is so 

 much discursive matter touching upon the primitive 

 history of nations, their manners and customs, their arts 

 and literature, and even their religion and philosophy, 

 that the book will be interesting to a wide circle of general 

 readers. Alfred R. Wallace 



EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES 

 European Butterjiics. By W. F. de Vismes Kane, iVL.A., 

 M.R.I.A., Memb.Ent.SocLond., &c. 8vo. Pp. i.-xxxi., 

 and 1-1S4, with plates. (London : Macmillan and Co. 

 1885.) 



IT has long been a standing reproach to British ento- 

 mologists that they are mainly divided into two 

 classes, those who collect or study British insects only, 

 and those who, with little knowledge of the productions 

 of their own country, are profound regarding exotics. In 

 other words, continental Europe is a blank to the majority 

 of them. And the purely "British" entomologist, as a 

 rule, is supposed to look upon anything continental as 

 unclean ; yet nevertheless prizes any unusual species if 

 captured on our shores, and uses every argument to prove 

 that it may possibly be a'true native, and not an immigrant, 

 for if the latter there must be a certaint taint attached to 

 it. The " purely British " entomologist is also supposed to 

 endeavour to maintain his conservative ideas by refusing 

 to enter into correspondence and interchange with his 

 continental brethren, [because everything not British is 

 unclean. He retains a peculiar method in the prepara- 

 tion of his materials that renders them not only practi- 

 cally useless for purposes of study, but prevents them 

 from being serviceable if by any chance they should fall 

 into the hands of " foreigners." The writer has often 



