Notices of N ew Books 



5935 



Lastly, like this glow of sunset, 

 Reddening the westward heaven, 

 Prelude of a fair tomorrow, 

 Hope illumines the hereafter." 



Valediction, p. 81. 



" All this has nothing to do with Entomology." Granted ; never- 

 theless, it accomplishes what we desire : it shows the spirit in which 

 the whole is written. We will now give a brief summary of the con- 

 tents, selecting a single example of the author's power of adjusting the 

 free and flowing phraseology of verse to the precise requirements of 

 accurate description. The first chapter is entitled " the four stages," 

 the egg, larva, pupa and imago. The author represents himself as 

 leading by the hand an intelligent little girl eight years of age, and 

 showing her the eggs of the vapourer moth ; the caterpillar of Sphinx 

 Ligustri; the chrysalis, in its cocoon, of the lacquey moth; and, 

 lastly, as an imago, the common cabbage butterfly. As the two 

 insect hunters, old and young, find these, in the course of a short 

 walk, the elder explains to the younger all that need be known 

 respecting them. The second chapter explains the seeming myste- 

 ries of metamorphosis, and the author founds his system on their 

 differences. The third chapter describes the tribes of Lepidoptera ; the 

 fourth of Diptera; the fifth of Hymenoptera ; the sixth of Coleoptera; 

 the seventh of Stegoptera ; the eighth of Neuroptera ; the ninth of 

 Orthoptera; and the tenth of Hemiptera. The names of all the 

 tribes terminate in ina, producing a degree of uniformity that assimi- 

 lates to that now universally employed in Botany. In giving entire 

 the description of one of these tribes, and that perhaps the most 

 awkward to deal with, we shall show the manner in which the author 

 has mastered them all. We cite the " Gallflies." 



"All the oakapples and inkg-alls. 

 All the cherrygalls and nutgalls. 

 All the bitter Dead Sea apples. 

 All the beautiful oakspangles. 

 And those freaks of sportive Nature 

 Called by children wild mossroses. 

 Found in summer in the hedgerows, 

 All these, and a hundred others 

 Quite as strange, and some far stranger. 

 Are the work of puny insects. 

 That we always call the Gallflies, 

 Or in science Cynipsina. 

 These most wonderful formations. 



