Colin Clout's Calendar. By Grant Allen. (Chatto and Winans.) —Here
are thirty-nine picturesque studies of hedgerow, moor, and forest, of stream, field, orchard, and garden. Mr. Grant Allen, the 4` Evolutionist at Large," discourses pleasantly and profitably of many of the beautiful and curious sights which the country-side affords from April to October. While his sketches, or rather pictures, are gracefully and sympathetically drawn, they reveal everywhere a keen insight into the meaning of nature. He has been most suc- cessful in placing the results of recent researches in evolution before cultivated, but non-scientific readers. Nor is the volume before us Without original matter, for Mr. Grant Allen has added observations and arguments of his own to the facts and reasonings of Wallace, Darwin, and other Workers. It would be hopeless to attempt an analysis of these essays, in a brief notice like the present ; but we may at least say that if any one wants to know something of the secrets which Nature has been lately forced to reveal, he cannot do better than read the essays which treat of such subjects as the following,—The Primrose, Swallows, the Trout- jump, the Green Leaf, Clover-blooms, the Mole at Home, White Rabbits and White Hares, Scarlet Geraniums, the Origin of Grouse, and Some American Colonists. Not that most of the other pictures are not well worth attentive study, but we are obliged to make a selection from the copious and varied Table of Contents. We do not suppose every one will agree with Mr. Allen in each and all of his theories, explanations, and judgments. Some naturalists, will think that he neglects some of the objective causes of the varia- tions observed in plants and animals,—their physical environment, for instance. Some lovers of colour will demur to his low estimate of the beauty of almond-blossom and other masses of spring bloom on leafless boughs (p. 33). Some botanists will decline to admit the -correctness of his statement concerning the wind-fertilisation of all the cereals (p. 63), and the value of the Cirencester experiments on transmutation among grasses. And if Mr. Allen will take a few crystals of the beautiful substance asparagine, and crunch and munch them till they have all dissolved, we fancy he will no longer be of opinion (p. 186) that he can call this com- pound the " essential flavouring principle " of asparagus. Pro- bably there is no easily soluble substance which is so perfectly de- void of flavour as asparagine. But each of these studies is so carefully wrought, and the authorities consulted in their preparation so recent
and so trustworthy, that we do not think that many slips, even of tle most trivial kind, can be found fir the book before us. We should add that the papers in this volume are reprinted from the St. James's Gazette. It is certain that they deserved republication in a more handy and permanent form, for we know that they attracted much attention as they originally appeared.
Previous page
