554 
Notices of Books. 
[October, 
lations into the original work. We are at a loss to see the 
necessity for this. Dr. Frankland’s formulae are far from being 
universally used by teachers, who find them cumbersome in use, 
and more apt to lead to blunders on the part of stupid students 
than the ordinary empirical formulae. At present we really know 
little or nothing about the constitution of bodies, and in our 
opinion it would be better humbly to acknowledge our ignorance 
by giving up the use of more or less improbable constitutional 
formulae in our text-books. 
Flowers ; their Origin , Shapes , Perfumes , and Colours. ByJ. E. 
Taylor, Ph.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. London : Hardwicke 
and Bogue. 
We have here not indeed a record of original research, or a 
formal treatise on phytology intended for the professed student 
of vegetable life, but an attempt to “ place before that portion of 
the intelligent public who have the desire, but neither the time 
nor opportunity to make themselves acquainted with natural 
science, the charming and suggestive results of modern botanical 
investigation.” To such a task the author brings unusual quali- 
fications. An able and enthusiastic botanist, and fully acquainted 
with all the recent discoveries in natural history, we might well 
expeCt from his pen a work at once readable, thoughtful, and 
suggestive. Nor shall we be disappointed. The volume before 
us teems with interesting faCts, described for the most part in 
clear language, and made more telling by the aid of numerous 
and well-seleCted illustrations. The reader who may feel dis- 
inclined to wade through original memoirs will find here, for 
instance, an account of the newly-discovered carnivorous plants, 
the wondrous story of the mutual relations between insecfis and 
flowers, and of the uses of colour and perfume to the latter. 
He will learn here something of the wonderful contrivance to 
prevent exclusive in-breeding, and secure occasional, if not fre- 
quent, crosses. He will find for what purpose and in what 
manner plants climb. Passing from individual phenomena to 
general truths, he will learn to take a broader and healthier view 
of the vegetable— as indeed of the whole organic — world than to 
consider it existing with exclusive reference to man. 
Still we must own to a certain amount of disappointment in 
the perusal of Dr. Taylor’s book. There is, in the first place, a 
considerable amount of needless and wearisome repetition. 
Thus the distinctive attributes of the two great groups of flowers, 
the anemophilous and entomophilous, are explained twice over, 
