46 
REVIEWS. 
these have been immediately and personally successful. The embellish¬ 
ments of the volume we set down entirely to the bookseller’s account, as 
out of the sphere of criticism. In the portion which is more particularly 
the author’s—the generalities on zoological classification—we miss somewhat 
of the precision and force we should have desired and expected from Mr. 
Dallas’s pen. His definition of species, for instance, absolutely necessitates 
such a saving clause as is appended to it—“if definition it may be called.” 
But surely another definition is not unknown to the author, which involves 
neither the logical duplicity, nor the positive inapplicability, of that which 
he has offered. The very complete index which closes the volume is. illus¬ 
trated with the etymological roots of the technical names, a plan which 
has its use in recommending to English readers the often happily significant 
and universally accepted terms of science, in place of the vernacular names 
arbitrarily imposed on unfamiliar objects, which so often have neither 
usage, sense, nor sound in their favour. But the orthography in this part, 
employed to represent the Greek letters, betrays a want of consistency, 
which a moderate degree of care would have prevented, and which seriously 
obscures the evidence of the explanations. 
June : A Book for the Country in Summer Time. By H.T. Stainton. 
8 vo. Price 3s. 6d. London : Longman and Co. 
' • 
This little volume comes before us with a cover of blue and gold, bright as 
the cloudless sky of a June day at noon and sunset. The title is a taking 
one. Who is there who does not find delight in June? Who is there who 
would not like to possess “ a book for the country in summer time ?” The 
name of its author, as an accomplished Entomologist, is well known, and 
has, on more than one occasion, already appeared in our pages, in connec¬ 
tion with some of his previous publications (“ Entomologist’s Annual,” 
“ Entomologist’s Companion,” &c=). 
Our readers will naturally enquire, “ What is it all about ?” The table 
of contents in part answers that question ; for there we find “Jane in 
Scotland,” “ June at the Lakes,” “ June in Devonshire,” in Sussex, and 
in the neighbourhood of London ; and in turning over the leaves we meet 
notices of these various localities, reminiscences of little events in the 
visits to each, and notes of natural objects observed, especially insects. 
The entomological “ vein,” in point of fact, “ crops out” everywhere ; and 
mixed with it we have moralisings on a variety of subjects, even upon the 
evils attendant upon going into debt, and living beyond our incomes. On 
