88 
NATURE NOTES. 
asserted that when the hostile Caribs introduced into the West 
Indian island of St. Vincent, which contains no venomous 
snakes, some of the dreaded “rat-tails” of St. Lucia, in order 
to injure the English possessors, the intruders were promptly- 
devoured by the indigenous black snakes, though these in our 
phrase are “ harmless.” What then can be the explanation of 
the enormous venom-glands of the Asiatic AdenopJiis, extending 
hack for fully one-third of the reptile’s entire length, so as to 
push the heart back much behind its usual place ? 
W'e have again, as Mr. Mivart tells us,f a very remarkable 
resemblance between frogs on the one hand and tortoises on the 
other, which, however, is clearly but an instance of the in- 
dependent origin of similar structures. So, too, the deceptive 
appearance of size in the turtle’s brain is paralleled not only in 
the case of two frogs but of an African rat, j where there can be 
no question of common descent. 
In the case of the opossum, we are told, two different and 
contradictory hypotheses are suggested by one set of facts. The 
recently discovered marsupial mole has a pouch like the rest of 
its class, but turned backwards instead of forwards, that it may 
not act as a dredge while the animal bores through the earth. 
How was such a development effected, and how did the pouch 
perform any functions at all while it was half wa)' between the 
two positions ? 
These are but a few samples of the mass of problems which 
are the direct product of our increased knowledge, and which, 
while they demand solution in order to confirm our theories, 
serve at the same time to allure the naturalist to labour by hold- 
ing out the hope of making discoveries. These points, and a 
multitude of others, must surely be capable of settlement, but 
till this is received it would rather appear as though we had as 
yet succeeded far better in exhibiting the extent of our ignorance 
with regard to the inner secrets of nature, than in displaying our 
knowledge. 
John Gerard. 
TWO BOOKS OF VERSE. 
We owe our acquaintance with Le Cahiei- Jaune, a privately printed volume 
of poems by Mr. A. C. Benson, of Eton College, to a notice which appeared in 
the Star, in the course of which some lines from a sonnet on Gilbert White were 
quoted. Mr. Richard Le Gallienne, the writer of the notice, was good enough 
to send us the remainder of the sonnet, and through his kind offices we obtained 
the permission of the author to reprint it in these pages (see p. 83). The book 
contains several poems which we should like to quote, but space compels a short 
notice. Blended with the notes which characterise modern jjoetry, there is a true 
and tender appreciation of Nature which now reminds us of Wordsworth, now' of 
Tennyson, but which is no imitation of either. Nor does Mr. Benson take his 
inspiration from the flowers which usually attract the poet’s attention. He is as ap- 
preciative of cherry-trees as Mr. Norman Gale, and he finds a source of inspiration 
in the Knapweed, which surely no poet has hitherto selected as a subject for verse. 
Types of Animal Life, p. 135. 
+ p. 120. 
p. 121. 
