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ago. In doing this, he has judged, we think, wisely; for, otherwise, the work would not have been all of a piece, and would, perhaps, have brought to our recollection the opening lines of Horace's Art of Poetry,

"Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit," &c.

We rejoice, however, to learn, by the postscript, that Mr. Haworth contemplates a new edition and entire revision of the whole. The science of entomology has undergone great alterations as to its nomenclature, divisions of genera, &c., since the earlier parts were printed. It has become much more popular, and more extensively studied. The original work, too, though not free from errors and omissions (as the author candidly acknowledges), is yet invaluable to the British lepidopterist, and has become exceedingly scarce. The impression was a small one, and the earlier parts have long been out of print. The new discoveries also made in this department of natural history, since the year 1803, are numerous, and highly interesting. In short, a revised edition of the work, or a new work on a similar plan, is required by the present more advanced state of the science. No one (we speak advisedly in saying this) is better qualified for such an undertaking than Mr. Haworth, who, in addition to long practical experience, possesses an extensive and profound knowledge of entomology, a most accurate and discriminating eye, and a dexterous facility in describing that most beautiful order of insects of which he treats. We sincerely hope he will put his intended plan in execution, and without delay. There can be little doubt but that such a work as he contemplates would meet with more encouragement from the public of the present day, than fell to the lot of Lepidoptera Británnica in 1803. It is almost unnecessary to add that, as vast alterations in the nomenclature have taken place since that period, there should be in the new work a constant reference to the old. The glossary, also, of entomological terms, together with a set of explanatory figures, which, though never executed, formed a part of the original design, should by no means be omitted.

The present part contains a description of ten genera of minute moths, viz. Ermínea, Capillària, Dasýcerus, Chelària, Gracillària, Porrectària, Ypsólophus, Recurvària, Incurvària, and Tinea; the whole comprehending about 247 species. It is unnecessary to say more on this concluding part, as no doubt it will be in the hands of every entomologist who possesses or can procure the preceding volumes.

A. R. Y.

ART. III. Floral Emblems. By HENRY PHILLIPS, F.L.S. and F.H.S., Author of Pomùrium Britannicum. London. Col. pl. 17. 10s.; plain 17. 1s.

Sir,

I COULD wish that you had desired my opinion of any other work, rather than of that you have sent me. For several reasons I could wish this: first, because I admire that maxim, which recommends us, where we cannot say any thing favourable, not to say any thing at all; next, because it is awkward to point out the defects of others, while we are probably exhibiting our own at the same moment; and, lastly, because I am so naturally disposed to think well of, and to feel kindly towards, any person whose mind is accustomed to dwell among flowers and trees, that it is doing a personal unkindness to myself to speak as, in this instance, sincerity compels me to speak.

From the title of the work, Floral Emblems, I expected to see a neat little pocket volume, light as the subject of which it treated; or a thin quarto, with finely coloured plates, brought out altogether in a costly, and album-like style, and adapted to take its place among the elegant knick-knacks of a lady of fashion. I expected to have found in it the figures of such plants as have, either in this or any other country, been generally or poetically associated with certain ideas; together with some account of each, explaining where or with whom such associations originated; interspersed with appropriate quotations, and, occasionally, with interesting anecdotes. I fancied how agreeably many young ladies, who have more leisure than they know how to enjoy, would amuse themselves in tying up sentimental bouquets, and painting pretty devices; but when I saw the book, and when I read it (with very much more attention than I should have done, had you not desired my opinion of it), I was led to doubt whether there was any one class of persons with whom it was likely to become a favourite. Those ladies for whom it would seem the best adapted, and who might be supposed to welcome the sort of employment into which it might lure them, would, I suspect, find it troublesome to refer so frequently to its pages, to ascertain the signification of the various flowers; for many of them are so arbitrary and vague, that there is nothing to assist the memory in retaining them. They might receive the rose as the emblem of beauty; the lily, of innocence; the violet, of modesty or humility; the holly, of Christmas merriment; or the mistletoe, of a stolen kiss: these would be familiar to them. The author might reasonably expect them to receive, as importations from

foreign lands, the rose, in progressive stages, as expressive of a growing love; the white water-lily, of unsullied purity; or the pomegranate, as the emblem of fertility; these, and many such, they might have received graciously, and Mr. Phillips might even have exercised his fancy in imagining new associations, so long as they were neither merely arbitrary, nor, in themselves, contradictory to the beauty and beneficence of nature. So long as the emblems he offered had a meaning and a grace, they might have been favourably received; but the majority of them appear to possess neither of these requisites. Disdain is to be expressed by the Yellow Carnation: Mr. Phillips does not tell us why; but goes on to speak of the vanity of the Greeks, and the arbitrary power exercised by their sultans, and ends with a quotation from Shakspeare, which is equally irrelevant. Clématis is symbolical of Artifice; for," when artifice is innocently resorted to, for the purpose of giving pleasure, it may be compared to the agreeable fragrancy of the sweet Clématis." The comparison might be made with any fragrant flower; and it is not, perhaps, very often that artifice is "innocently resorted to." The Sunflower is indicative of False Riches; because "gold of itself, however abundant, cannot render a person rich, who is poor in spirit." Indeed! is wealth synonymous with magnanimity, in Mr. Phillips's vocabulary? It would be well if the want of gold were equally powerless to make those poor, whose spirits were not so. The Blackthorn represents Difficulty: "It is difficult to penetrate a thick fence of blackthorn; some persons make a difficulty of walking over a heath, others, who mistake impossibilities for difficulties, can only be convinced by conviction, which frequently comes too late." With the Saffron is associated the phrase, Do not abuse. "Too liberal a use of this cordial and stimulating flower is said to destroy the reason, or cause the death, of those who indulge in it." It may be my own dulness, but I do not see what reference the following quotation has, either to the plant, or to the author's

mention of it:

"Some praise at morning, what they blame at night,
But always think the last opinion right."

Neither do I find any sufficient reason for making the delicate Privet the emblem of Defence (the Holly would be a stouter one); the Marjoram, of Bluster; the Osier, of Frankness; the Cereus (one of the most beautiful of flowers), of Horror. Here I come to another objection, and a grave one: why does Mr. Phillips seek to associate flowers, which naturally present agreeable images to the mind as well as to the eye, with such ideas as

these, -Vulgar minds, Envy, Disgust, Voraciousness, War, Suspicion, Hatred, &c.; and why does he represent the latter by the Sweet Basil, by a plant associated with the most tender love, as he may find in the works of Boccacio, and in two poets of our own times, neither of whom should have been forgotten, and, least of all, he whose body was too early laid to rest, to afford his great genius time for full expansion?

Why does Mr. Phillips represent Celibacy by a lady with eight husbands (Epilobium angustifolium), and one of the particular favourites of Flora, who is not supposed to advocate that virtue? Why make the Lady's-smock the emblem of Paternal Error, because Shakspeare says that Lear wore the Cuckoo Flower in his flowery crown; when, in the same page, he quotes lines from Shakspeare, designating the Butter-cup by that name, and expressly distinguishing it from the Lady'ssmock? Why, speaking of the Red Valerian, does he quote a line applicable to a very different species? "Grey loosestrife here, and pale valerian spring." And why give the common Laurel as the emblem of Glory, instead of the true Laurel, the Bay (Laúrus nóbilis)? But it is vain to multiply questions (of which there are many more to ask), until these have been answered.

The language in which Mr. Phillips expresses his ideas, is as obscure and incorrect as the ideas themselves; one glaring instance of the latter, is the frequent misuse of the word and. "The language of flowers is said to be as old as the world, and the antiquity of floral emblems as great as that of love itself; and by whom it is supposed to have been invented," &c.

"That the use of heraldic emblems greatly increased throughout Europe, during the crusades, is generally known ; and where, as a flattering badge, every private soldier wore a cross of red stuff, sewed to his surcoat."

"This month (January) and the next were added to the year by Numa Pompilius, and had the name from Janus, a Roman god, painted with two faces (signifying providence or wisdom), judging by things past of things to come."

Speaking of the Cyclamen, Mr. Phillips says: "We present this emblem, with a hope that the poets will not longer remain too diffident to let this pretty plant escape the harmony of their song," &c.

I wish I could find something to speak well of in this volume, but I am obliged to own that even the plates are bad. As a work of art, I am not qualified to speak; I refer only to the inaccuracy. The holly, in particular, is so little like a holly, that I said to a friend, as I looked at it, "This should

have been a holly, but I see it is not." Upon reference, I was somewhat surprised to find that it was intended for one. The device representing Pensiveness arising from Solitude, has the situation of the plants exactly the reverse of what they ought to be. It now represents, according to Mr. Phillips's emblems, Solitude arising from Pensiveness.

Unless they were intended always to be represented by paintings, the party-coloured leaves must be rather difficult to obtain, as described; and it might happen that a lady might not have a bird's nest at hand, when she was desirous of sending to her lover a floral invitation to visit her in the months of April or May; or a caterpillar, should she fix upon a Friday.

One thing in the volume I did look at with some portion of interest, the floral emblems of the Scottish clans: but, in other respects, I have been disappointed; the more so, from a recollection of some interesting anecdotes, which I observed in a hasty skimming of the Flora Histórica, some time since, and which had led me to expect similar entertainment in the Floral Emblems. E.

ART. IV. An Introduction to Geology; comprising the Elements of the Science in its present advanced State, and all the recent Discoveries: with an Outline of the Geology of England and Wales. By ROBERT BAKEWELL. The Third Edition, entirely recomposed, with new Plates, pp. 540, 8vo. Longman & Co. GEOLOGY, or the science of the earth, has only been practicaily and scientifically cultivated for about half a century. What was formerly called geology, consisted of speculations respecting the formation of the world, which partook more of the character of poetry than of sound philosophy. Geology, as a science, can only proceed like the other sciences, by a patient investigation of facts, and by an extended comparison of analogous phenomena in various situations. Werner and some of the earlier practical geologists, who first examined attentively the structure of the earth's surface in the particular countries where they resided, fell into the very common error of forming premature generalisations, and took for granted that the same series of strata, and the same rocks, which they observed around them, were spread universally over the globe, in the same invariable order of succession. On this principle the system of Werner was founded, and its supporters maintained that it was perfect in all its parts, and was not less entitled to an unhesitating assent, than the Newtonian VOL. I.

No. 4.

B B

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