The Making of a Dairy : "Wheat out of Lilies,"
and other Studies in Plant-Life and Evolution. A Popular Introduction to Botany. By Eleanor Hughes-Gibb. (Griffin and Co.)—The short essays comprised in this little volume are intended to interest children in the subject of botany ; but we think they will probably be found more useful to parents or teachers with some acquaintance with the subject, who can amplify, illustrate, and where necessary modify, the authoress's statements. The subject of evolution is so vast and complicated that it is difficult to make it intelligible in a small compass ; and an author cannot qualify every sentence with "It is believed," or "There is reason to suppose," or even "it is probable." Consequently, an elementary book on evolution is likely to become too dogmatic; and it is a mistake to put forward definite statements as facts, which rest, at most, on very imperfect and insufficient evidence. Thus, our authoress says :—"I cannot tell of the stages by which the changes would come to pass, but I know that by degrees bird-forms would become fewer and simpler, and more and more unlike our little yellow-hammer, and at last, perhaps when the millions had reached their second figure, we should come upon monstrous wing-fingered, flying lizards, with long beak-like organs, armed with pointed teeth, and other enormous winged lizards, walking strangely on their hind legs, with feet like birds ; and should be forced, perhaps somewhat reluctantly, to the conclusion that these, or some near relations of these ungainly creatures (them- selves descended from simpler wingless lizard ancestors), were the true forefathers of our pretty yellow-hammer." Equally dubious are the statements that beetles preceded bees and butter- flies by thousands of years; and the predilection of different Orders of insects for flowers of certain colours is expressed in far too absolute a manner; for numbers of insects of all Orders may frequently be seen feeding together on a single attractive com- posite or umbelliferous flower, quite irrespective of colour. But the book is primarily botanical, insects, &c., being only mentioned in connection with plants, with which the authoress is much more familiar, and at pp. 90-96 we have an ingenious comparison of the structure of flowers to buildings, arranged on a similar plan, and containing a number of rooms designed for special purposes, but liable to numerous modifications in detail. We are glad to notice, too, that our authoress sees clearly that evolution, however far it may be traced back, cannot lead us beyond secondary causes ; and that the primary causes of things (which some naturalists seem inclined to treat as non-existent) are quite beyond our reach. There are twenty illustrations in the text, more than half of which appear to be original.
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