Recent Agricultural Publications. 
829 
they grew, and beyond that it did not occur to me, nor I think to 
most, that it was possible to inquire.” 
If, at the time to which he refers, it never occurred to Sir John 
Fig. 1. — Seedling of Mustard, Bra.- 
sica nigra, x .1. 
Lubbock, as he tells us in the above words (vol. i., page 3), to 
inquire into these matters, much less was it likely to occur to those 
who are endowed with only the 
ordinary powers of observation. 
As the skilled investigator hints, 
even the possibility of such an 
inquiry appeared to be remote. 
Not only, however, has it been 
accomplished, and by Sir John 
Lubbock himself, but the result is 
embodied in the two volumes be- 
fore us. How many years of un- 
wearying labour the task has 
involved is best known to him 
who has effected it, but it is safe 
to say that there is scarcely a 
page in the entire work which 
does not record some new observa- 
tion or discovery. 
There can be but few culti- 
vators who have not experienced a thrill of satisfaction on seeing 
the tender braird of a newly sown crop gra lually cover, as with 
FiO. 3. — Seedling of Beech, Fagus sylvatica 
half natural size. 
