1878.] Recent Literature. 813 
with our wild flowers in most of their moods, makes us critical in 
a few instances as regards shades of color. But where there is 
so much that is excellent, the office of fault-finder is gratuitous. 
We especially commend the drawings of Pachysandra laap ka 
and Folypodium incanum. In still another respect t new s 
ought certainly to succeed.— W. 
TAYLor’s Frowers.!— This little book which, in about six 
months, has passed into a second edition in England, should be 
better known in this country. The author has, with great skill, 
presented in a popular form the most recent results of botanical 
research. In so doing he has not fallen into the habit, all too 
common, of theorizing for himself or poetizing for others. He 
is in full sympathy with modern thought, and in his opening 
chapter on the old and the a a ee T states his 
position. He shows that the e has gone by when man is to 
hold that the beauty of eni. or their useful or noxious T 
ties were designed in reference to him alone; that it is a noble 
conception, and one, moreover, sustained by facts, that they are 
contrived in subservience to their own needs and their special 
environment. This chapter in itself is a most delightful Esh 
In it reference is made to the researches of Darwin, Mülle 
Bates, Bell and others upon cross-fertilization by insects ad 
humming birds. The author is well read in the literature of his 
ture and their relations to their surroundings. The colors, shapes, 
perfumes and defences of flowers, all have. appropriate treatment 
in special chapters, and it is impossible in a short notice to con- 
y a the reader an adequate idea of the vast amount ‘of infor- 
n here condensed into accessible shape. The very latest 
data fea the Challenger and the British Arctic Expeditions are 
incorporated. To add to the merits of the volume, it is superbly 
printed, and iliietratéd with 32 colored figures by Sowerby, 
together with 161 woodcuts. 
Says the author: “ Every day we are proving that ‘ man liveth 
not by bread alone’; and that sunny blue skies, laughing streams, 
and flower-bedecked fields are Er of ao and even spiritual 
the horizon, and is each day becoming more manifest to us. 
clearer conception of Creational Power and Wisdom must naturally 
spring from more correct ideas of the laws by which the Life of 
our planet originated, and which still continue to govern it.” 
In conclusion, this is a book which we would gladly put into 
1 Flowers; their origin, shapes, perfumes and colors. By J. E es cone, Ph.D., 
F.L.S., etc. Second edition. London, Hardnicke & Bogue, 1878. 16 
