555 
1878 .] Notices of Books . 
on pages 15 and 149. The relations between flowers and inseCts 
are touched upon in almost the same words on pages 29 and 
148. On page 15 we read — “ Every cottager who has hung the 
gaudy-coloured paper fly-cages in his room, to prevent his clean 
white-washed roofs and walls from being dirtied by the common 
house-fly, has practically availed himself of the attraction which 
bright colours have for even these non-flower-loving inseCts.” 
On page 174 the same idea recurs in almost the same words : — 
“ In the brilliantly coloured paper fly-cages which he has been 
in the habit of hanging from the roof of his cottage, to save its 
clean white-wash from soiling, the cottager has practically taken 
advantage of the attractions which colour has even for the 
Diptera.” 
There are also certain peculiarities of expression which a little 
care in the revision of the press might have prevented. Thus 
in one passage we are told that “ speCtroscopic analysis has 
made it (the nebular hypothesis) more probably truthful than 
ever.” Elsewhere there is reference to “ a paragraph which 
Brongniart made in 1849 and on page 184 we read — “ Both 
them and the jonquils are remarkable for having a corona or tube 
within the flower.” 
As regards the subjeCt-matter of the work before us, there are 
also certain points on which issue might be joined. Thus the 
author (p. 299). ranks humming-birds “ among the latest products 
of Evolution.” Mr. Wallace, on the other hand,* holds that 
“ their extreme isolation from other forms, no less than the 
abundance and variety of their generic and specific forms, clearly 
point to a very high antiquity.” 
On page 19 we read that the Sphinxes (Sphinges) or hawk- 
moths “ have not only long probosces, but slender bodies and 
hawk-like wings.” To us the bodies of the hawk-moths appear 
thick in comparison with those of the generality of Lepi- 
doptera. 
The author, with many naturalists, considers that the bright 
colours of certain berries, &c., are designed to induce birds to 
partake of them. “ It may be found that the colours of our 
wild berries are in this way as serviceable to the plants in ob- 
taining for them distribution of bird-agency as those of their 
flowers have been in attracting those inseCts by whose aid these 
very seeds have been produced. ... It may be that the very 
reason why the coloured succulent berries of some plants are 
uneatable by or poisonous to other animals than birds is a gain 
to them, in preventing their being swallowed by creatures in 
whose stomachs the seeds would be digested and assimilated. 
Singularly enough, with the increased size of our garden fruits 
produced through cultivation, there has often been developed a 
* Tropical Nature, p. 148. 
