i88 5 .] 
Analyses of Books. 557 
have been used by the party whose adventures are here described, 
but all it would seem unsuccessfully. Amongst them is mention 
ot a tincture of rosemary. The question suggests itself, was this 
garden-rosemary or the very different plant marsh-rosemary 
(. Leduni Palustre ) ? From personal observation we know that 
t re tincture of the latter plant is a protection against mosquitoes, 
and we shall be much disappointed if it fails as against the New 
Zealand sandfly. We see no mention of the tinCture of Pyre- 
thrum roseum having been applied. 
It is much to be regretted that so few inventors turn their 
attention to means of repelling or destroying the blood-sucking 
Diptera. It is not too much to say that over three-fourths of the 
habitable globe human life is more or less embittered by these 
pests. J 
The origin of their blood-sucking instinCt is an uncracked “ nux 
zoologica.” Here are creatures not dependent upon human or 
mammalian blood. Indeed, millions of them and of their pro- 
genitors for generations must in such localities as the Western 
Sounds of New Zealand never have seen or smelt a mammal. 
Yet on the very first approach of a man they flock to him as if 
blood was a necessary to which they had always been accustomed ! 
Their supposed sanitary services are so far from being established 
that the very contrary view is almost absolutely demonstrated, 
that they are the colporteurs of zymotic disease. Surely in view 
of what we know of the Ctclicidce and Tipulidce the “ pious adage ” 
that everything is of some use becomes very questionable. 
In “ Adventures of a Pioneer ” there is mention of a tree called 
“ the native Peruvian bark tree.” The bark is said to contain a 
large proportion of quinine. Whether this tree is near of kin to 
the Cinchonaceas it does not appear. We read further some 
particulars of a beautiful tree which has been named in honour 
of Professor Owen. It appears that it propagates only by 
suckers which spring up from the roots. The seeds will not 
germinate. They are contained in a solid stone, so dense that 
it cannot be bioken with a hammer.” Two years must pass 
before the stone decays, and then the kernels have perished also. 
Surely a curious state of things to have been reached by natural 
selection or any other process 1 
But this is not the only interesting facfl which the author of 
this paper has to relate. The Bullogurra lake is an exception to 
the rule that all lakes and depressions which have no outlet should 
be salt. But at a depth of 12 feet below the fresh water is a bed 
of ground-water much more than twice as salt as the sea. 
A species of wild clover or trefoil growing on the margin of 
the lake is infested with a dark-coloured aphis. “ Plorses feeding 
amongst it are attacked by the aphides, but only when they have 
white spots on their noses or feet.” This the author justly pro- 
nounces “ a new and extraordinary fadt in natural history.” But 
that our common green aphis is capable of attacking man we 
