744 Analyses of Books . [December, 
eaten, and with fatal effecfl. Certain caterpillars, reptiles, &c., 
having unwholesome properties, are gaily coloured for the very 
opposite purpose — that they may not be eaten. This subjedt is 
in need of a closer examination. Do any of our native birds 
ever eat the berries of the deadly nightshade, of the bryony, or 
of the bitter-sweet, and if so with what result ? Are birds often 
found poisoned, save owing to human interference ? There is 
here, we repeat, much room for study and some for experiment, 
though the latter must be performed in countries where the law 
has not been moulded to suit the whims of maenad novelists and 
honorary secretaries. 
In two passages Mr. Allen puts on record his aversion to cul- 
tivated flowers. Thus he says, “ To a botanical eye double 
flowers, however large and fine, are never really beautiful, be- 
cause they lack the order and symmetry which appear so conspi- 
cuously in the five petals, the clustered stamens, and the regular 
stigmas of the natural form.” 
If this is a good and sufficient reason we can only express 
ourselves devoutly thankful that we have not a “ botanical eye.” 
We have seen it elsewhere “ ruled ” — we think by Mr. Allen — 
that double flowers cannot be beautiful because they are purpose- 
less. If this canon is to be adopted mankind are greatly to 
blame for admiring a sunset sky. To what end is all its 
splendour ? As far as we can perceive, a canopy of hodden-grey 
— such as we too often see — would have answered the very same 
purposes which follow from a western heaven where day “ dies 
like the dolphin.” 
One very valuable lesson may be learnt from the book before 
us, — the low character and standing of yellow flowers. We hope 
that the neo-aesthetics may be induced to reconsider their love 
for the sunflower, the daffodil, and the buttercup. 
The Standard of Value. By W. L. Jordan, F.R.G.S. Third 
Edition. London : David Bogue. 
The author of this treatise contends that “ the double standard 
of gold and silver was pracftically the standard of value through- 
out the civilised world from time immemorial to the year 1873.” 
He asserts that the enormous national debts now existing have 
been borrowed under that double standard ; and for the Govern- 
ments of the world to legislate in such a manner as to establish 
a gold standard instead of that double standard constitutes the 
most gigantic injustice towards the labouring classes who are 
burdened with those debts that has ever been recorded. If Par- 
liament in 1816 had the right to decree the legal establishment 
