Abstract
WHETHER designed or accidental, it is a fortunate circumstance that this sumptuous volume—a real édition de luxe—makes its appearance at a time when the most remote portions of the British Empire are being brought into closer connection with the mother country. At such a time everything that tends to promote a more intimate knowledge of the natural products of our colonial dependencies deserves a hearty welcome at the hands of all interested in the expansion and unification of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. On these grounds, to say nothing of others, Mr. Saville-Kent and his enterprising publishers are to be congratulated on the appearance of the work before us. As an attractive volume for the drawing-room table, it would be hard to equal anywhere; the beauty of its illustrations, whether in the form of coloured plates or of collotypes, being above praise, and calculated to arrest the attention of many of those who have hitherto cared little or nothing for the products of tropical and subtropical nature. Indeed, the two chromos of coral-reefs at low water, one of which forms the frontispiece, while the other illustrates the chapter on Houtman's Abrolhos, may well make every reader long for the opportunity of beholding scenes of such transcendent loveliness.
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L., R. Australian Natural History1. Nature 56, 271–273 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056271d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056271d0