Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/281

Rh, and as important as the perfect stage, descriptions are given of these under the guidance of the same principle." The work opens with a short introduction to the general study of butterflies, which is followed by keys to the various groups, based respectively on the perfect butterfly, the caterpillar, and the chrysalis. The body of the work consists of concise descriptions arranged systematically, each comprising first a description of the butterfly, the caterpillar, and the chrysalis, then some account of the eggs and habits of the species. An appendix furnishes instructions for collecting, rearing, preserving, and studying, with cuts of apparatus.

In The Life of a Butterfly, Mr. Scudder has described one of the most conspicuous American—butterflies the large orange and black milkweed butterfly—and at the same time he has, by introducing comparisons, given some account of the lives of the other members of its tribe. The several habits of the chosen type are also used to illustrate such general scientific topics as the struggle for existence, mimicry, distribution, classification, etc. Four plates, showing the type insect and its important parts, are given.

splendid fighters have come of Quaker stock, and Nathanael Greene was a notable one of these. His comparatively short life was a most valuable one to this country, and to-day his statue stands with that of Roger Williams to represent Rhode Island in the Capitol at Washington. His life up to thirty-three years of age was uneventful. Then the Revolution broke out, and the Assembly of his colony elected him brigadier general to command the Rhode Island militia. The choice was amply justified by Greene's career, first as a thorough organizer in camp near Boston, then as the friend and trusted subordinate of Washington in the operations about New York and Philadelphia, as quartermaster general, and most of all as the strategist, ever active and vigilant, who manœuvred the British out of the Carolinas. The volume before us gives a vivid and detailed account of his part in the struggle for independence. The descriptions of battles are clear and precise and all important ones are illustrated with maps. An engraving from the portrait of Greene by Charles Wilson Peale forms the frontispiece of the volume.

is one of the volumes of Whittaker's Library of Popular Science, and its simple style amply justifies its appearance in such a series. It is a small book, containing only the information that would be desired by an intelligent person who did not care to make a study of the subject. Its twenty-one short chapters are divided into three groups: the first telling how rocks are made, and what they are made of; the second telling how the rocks were brought into the positions they now occupy; and the last describing the rocks of different ages, and the fossils which serve to identify them There are ninety-four illustrations.

this work Mr. Lecky develops a profoundly interesting chronicle. Not only does it present much that is novel to those whose ideas of the subject have filtered through English media, but it reveals the forces which have aided in the evolution of Irish character.

The typical traits of the Irish are often carelessly ascribed to racial differences. The influence of the Celtic element is not easily traced and is apt to be overestimated. What are termed distinctively Irish evils characterize chiefly the counties settled by Englishmen. Religion has been a more potent factor in modification, while the climate and situation of the country have had an important share in the formative process.

The suppression of her industries contributed largely to the downfall of the nation. The policy of England, however, was essentially the same toward Scotland and America, but Ireland was for various causes more completely in her grasp. It is difficult to read unmoved the struggles of this