286 



Scientific Intelligence. 



Crangon and Hippolyte." Prof. Agassiz in a recent letter (to J. D. Dana, 



dated Nahant, July 18th,) respecting these observations of Mr. Bates, 

 writes that " they only show how extensive a field of observation remains 

 untrodden among these little forms. Had Mr. Bates looked more fully 

 into the embryology of Crustacea he would be better prepared to appre- 

 ciate the close correspondence there is between the young of certain fam- 

 ilies and the adults of others, and know that these facts are not limited 

 to the Macroura, as I have shown in my lectures on embryology, p. 62 

 to 69 : he would know that the eyes of even the highest Crustacea are 

 sessile in the young, etc., and that such characters observed upon young 

 Crustacea do not therefore prove them to be peculiar types, unless at the 

 same time their reproduction be satisfactorily traced. Acknowledging 

 Mr. Bates's interesting observation as proving that his Diastylis Rathkii 

 is an adult animal, the question has made a real progress through his re- 

 searches ; but it remains as certain as before, that there are Cumce which 

 are larva? of Macroura" 



4. Insecta Maderensia, being an Account of the Insects of the Islands 

 of the Madeiran Group ; by T. Vernon Wollaston, M.A., F.R.S. 

 634 pp., 4to, with 13 well-filled colored plates. London, 1854. John 

 Van Voorst. 



On the Variation of Species with especial reference to the Insecta, fol- 

 lowed by an inquiry into the Nature of Genera ; by T. Vernon Wol- 

 laston, M.A., F.L.S. 208 pp., 12mo. London, 1856. John Van 

 Voorst. 



The first of these works is an elegant quarto volume containing full 

 descriptions, of the Insects of the Madeira Islands, with remarks on their 

 distribution, habits and varieties. The author went as an invalid to the 

 regions he has so carefully investigated, and we rejoice with him in the 

 invigoration he found in pursuing his favorite science among the heights 

 and gorges of that delightful land. As giving some picture of the au- 

 thor, we quote a paragraph or two from his Introduction : — 



" The admirer of Nature who has passed a long winter at the moun- 

 tain's base, contented merely to gaze upon the towering peaks, which, 

 though clear and cold at night, seldom reveal themselves during the day 

 with sufficient constancy (through' the heavy canopy of cloud which 

 hangs around them) to warrant an ascent, hails with unbounded joy the 

 advance of spring, — knowing that the time is at hand when he w T ill be 

 able to revel at large in this Atlantic paradise, in remote spots seldom 

 visited by strangers, and at altitudes where the fierce elements of winter 

 shall give way at last to perpetual sunshine and the fresh breezes of a 

 calmer sea. There is something amazingly luxurious in betaking oneself 

 to tent-life, after months of confinement and annoyance (it may be en- 

 tirely, — partially it must be) in the heat and noise of Funchal. We are 

 then perhaps more than ever open to the favorable impressions of an 

 alpine existence ; — and who can adequately tell the ecstasy of a first 

 encampment on. these invigorating hills ! To turn out, morning after 

 morning, in the solemn stillness of aerial forests, — where not a sound is 

 heard, save ever and anon a woodman's axe in some far-off tributary ra- 

 vine, or a stray bird hymning forth its matin song to the ascending sun ; 

 to feel the cool influence of the early dawn on the upland sward, and to 



