REVIEWS. 
299 
philosophy of natural history has opened a prospect, and which Dr. 
Taylor, in the little hook before us, has very successfully discussed. Here 
the reader will find explained, and in a pleasant and popular style, all 
the points to which we have merely alluded above, and a good many more, 
the book being in fact a brief treatise on flowering plants in themselves and 
in their relations to the outside world. The geographical distribution of 
plants not unnaturally occupies a prominent position, and in connexion 
with this their geological history* is of importance, besides leading to certain 
curious speculations with regard to the relations prevailing in past time 
between insects and plants. The remarkable results of the investigations of 
Mr. Darwin and others upon the orchids and upon dimorphic and trimorphic 
plants are given in considerable detail — in fact the whole subject is well 
treated, and the author may certainly congratulate himself on having 
fulfilled the design with which he set out, namely, “to place before that 
portion of the intelligent public who have the desire, but neither the time 
nor the opportunity, to make themselves acquainted with natural science, the 
charming and suggestive results of modern botanical investigation.” It is, 
indeed, for its suggestiveness, in addition to the vast amount of information 
collected in its pages, that we should specially recommend Dr. Taylor’s little 
book ; it will probably suggest to many members of “ the intelligent public ,y 
who fancy that they have no time or opportunity for natural-history studies, 
that after all here are paths indicated which may lead them to a keener 
appreciation of nature, and of the system of nature, by means of personal 
observation, without making any very serious inroads upon their time ; and 
the book is so many-sided that all fancies may be hit by it. 
The little volume is illustrated with eight coloured plates of common 
flowers, each containing four figures, and with a great number of very good 
wood engravings scattered through the text. 
TERNS* 
TTTE are told by an excellent authority, of a certain Peter Bell, that 
“ A primrose by the river’s brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more.” 
His opinion of ferns would probably have been of a still more disparaging" 
nature ; and we are afraid that in this respect there are a good many Peter Bells 
in the world. It is, so far as we know, the main object of Mr. F. G. Heath’s, 
literary activity to convert these benighted individuals to what, with all the 
zeal of a missionary to the heathen, he regards implicitly as the true faith, 
namely, a belief that his farvourite ferns are among the most beautiful of 
plants ; and truly those who are familiar with them will hardly be inclined 
to gainsay this opinion. In their graceful curves, in the delicate tracery of 
their fronds, in the beautiful effects of colour and of light and shade which 
they present, none of the lowlier growing plants come near them ; and it is 
* “ The Fern Paradise, a Plea for the Culture of Ferns.” By Francis 
George Heath. Fourth Edition. 8vo. London : Sampson Low & Co. 1878. 
