Abstract
THIS book is one to be laid down with regret, so brightly does the authoress tell of very varied scenes and experiences, and so easily is the reader carried along with her through them. There are few books of travels in which the fascination of the tropics to a naturalist is so evident, or that would more strongly arouse the desire to see for oneself what is here so well described. But the other side of trie shield is no less vividly placed before the reader, and the price at which alone the pleasures of tropical travel can be bought can be well realised from it. Old travellers will find their experiences recalled, and will bear witness to the accuracy of Mrs. Rowan's descriptions alike of the beauties and of the discomforts of the tropics, and will recognise that the latter are expressed in no overstrained terms. There are many interesting references to the earlier history of the Colonies, and others, equally interesting, to points in natural history, though in a few of the latter the want of technical knowledge shows itself. Many and wonderful as are the powers of ants, observed in and authenticated from all parts of the world, we should have hesitated to believe about the nests of the green ants of Queensland, that “leaves and flowers are spun together by spiders that the ants keep for the purpose.” Mr. Saville-Kent's statement that he has observed the ants use their own full-fed larvæ to supply the silk required for spinning the leaves together, affords an explanation sufficiently curious, but more in accordance with what we should expect. Numerous excellent views add to the attractiveness of the volume. It deserves, and will doubtless receive, a welcome from those interested in travels and natural history.
A Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand.
By Mrs. Rowan. Pp. xiii + 272. (London: Murray, 1898.)
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A Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand. Nature 57, 436 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057436a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057436a0