Notices of Boohs, 
1879.] 
137 
short of 6 ozs. — a fadl decidedly at issue with prevalent notions 
as to the lucrative character of gold-mining. 
Flowers and their Unhidden Guests. By Dr. A. Kerner, Pro- 
fessor of Botany in the University of Innsbruck. With a 
Prefatory Letter by Charles Darwin, F.R.S. The transla- 
tion revised and edited by W. Ogle, M.D. London : C. 
Kegan Paul and Co. 
The part played by insects in the fertilisation of flowers since 
it was first distinctly pointed out by Mr. Darwin has given scope 
for a great amount of investigation, and has proved a delightful 
field of study both to botanists and entomologists. Indeed, it 
is difficult for any naturalist to enter upon this study without 
being compelled to notice simultaneously the structure of plants 
and the habits of insedls, and thus to enlarge at once our 
knowledge of both. Eut whilst former observers have carefully 
ascertained the various contrivances by which self-fertilisation 
is prevented and by which insedls are enticed to the flower pre- 
cisely when their services are needed, Dr. Kerner has opened up 
quite a new phase of the mutual relations of plants and insedls. 
All winged and creeping things are not alike welcome visitants 
to a flower. Those only of a certain weight, size, and shape, 
and, we may add, of certain habits, are likely to promote the 
great objedt of fecundation. Others would be useless or posi- 
tively detrimental, and accordingly to prevent, as far as possible, 
their intrusion, we find a most interesting set of arrangements 
which the author here describes. He has thus succeeded in 
showing use and meaning in a vast number of floral strudlures 
which former observers had passed over as purposeless. By so 
doing he has invested the study of botany with new charms, and 
has encouraged men of science to persevere in their attempts to 
detedl the fundtion of parts not yet understood. It is interesting, 
however, to find that in this task Dr. Kerner has not been with- 
out a forerunner. Our lamented friend Mr. Belt, in his “ Natu- 
ralist in Nicaragua,” as Dr. Ogle points out in his preface, 
“ distinctly recognises the fundamental point” of Kerner’s 
memoir. “May flowers,” he wrote, “have contrivances for 
preventing useless insedls from obtaining access to the 
nedtaries ; ” and again, “The strudlure of many (flowers) 
cannot, I believe, be understood, unless we take into considera- 
tion not only the beautiful adaptations for securing the services 
of the proper insedt or bird, but also the contrivances for pre- 
venting insects that would not be useful from obtaining access 
to the nedlar.” This anticipation, however, is far from dimin- 
ishing the interest and merit of the work before us. The idea 
which Belt first propounded Dr. Kerner has worked out in detail, 
