1882.] 
Analyses of Boohs . 
547 
country of Darwin than is the case in lands more remote. The 
author’s modest anticipation is, we thinly likely to be more than 
fulfilled. 
The first of these essays, on “ Fallow Deer,” touches on two con- 
troverted points : Were fallow deer first introduced into Britain 
by its Roman invaders, or are they, as Mr. Allen inclines to think, 
a part of our indigenous fauna? Another disputed question is 
concerning the beech tree. The author refers to the time when 
England was clad by one almost unbroken sheet of oaks and 
beeches.” Now Caesar, in his Commentaries, notes the absence 
of the beech in that limited part of England which he overran. 
Archaeologists have also remarked that whilst the ash and the 
oak have given names to a multitude of towns and villages in all 
parts of the Island, very few truly pristine names can be traced 
to the beech, Buckingham being one of the few exceptions. 
Reference is made to the wild cattle of Chillingham as an 
interesting survival of our old mammalian fauna ; but here, as in 
other writings on the same subjedt, it is overlooked that a herd 
of the same species exists at Lyme Park, near Macclesfield. The 
sketch of the development of horns in the ruminant animals is 
beautifully clear and simple. With one passage, however, we 
must venture to disagree. The author pronounces horns 
“weapons of rivalry, all but useless against other species.” 
Now, any one who has ever seen, e.g., a bull or a buffalo fighting, 
whether against human, canine, or feline foes, will hesitate at 
endorsing this view. With a speed little to be expected from so 
ponderous an animal, he strikes right and left with his horns 
through a breadth of nearly four yards, rushing rapidly forwards 
all the time. The “ horn of hart ” was, in the days of our fore- 
fathers, dreaded alike by huntsman and hound. Two flaws 
somewhat mar this otherwise pleasing and instructive essay : 
The author goes out of his way to announce his political creed, 
and he twice makes use of the cant expression “ dumb,” as 
applied to the lower animals. 
The essay on “ Sedge and Woodrush,” calls attention to a 
circumstance often overlooked by beginners in the study of 
Natural History, and especially by those unreasonable beings 
who, without being or seeking to become naturalists at all, insist 
upon criticising Darwin and his coadjutors. Says Mr. Allen : — 
“ Contrary to the general belief, Evolution does not by any 
means always or necessarily result in progress or improvement. 
Nay, the real fadt is that by far the greater number of plants and 
animals are degraded types, — products of retrogression rather 
than of upward development.” By dint of overlooking this truth, 
first, we believe, worked out by Prof. E. Ray Lankester and Dr. 
Dohrn, of the Naples Aquarium, Prof. Minot was led to the con- 
clusion that man is not the highest mammalian type. 
The chapter entitled the “ Hedgehog’s Hole,” gives an inte- 
resting survey of the position, past and present, of the Insedtivora, 
