166 THE MALAYAN PAPILIONIDJE AS 



species than really exists. There is a completeness 

 and satisfaction to the mind in denning and limiting 

 and naming a species, which leads us all to do so 

 whenever we conscientiously -can, and which we know 

 has led many collectors to reject vague intermediate 

 forms as destroying the symmetry of their cabi- 

 nets. We must therefore consider these cases of ex- 

 cessive variation and instability as being thoroughly 

 well established ; and to the objection that, after all, 

 these cases are but few compared with those in which 

 species can be limited and defined, and are therefore 

 merely exceptions to a general rule, I reply that a 

 true law embraces all apparent exceptions, and that 

 to the great laws of nature there are no real excep- 

 tions that what appear to be such are equally results 

 of law, and are often (perhaps indeed always) those 

 very results which are most important as revealing 

 the true nature and action of the law. It is for such 

 reasons that naturalists now look upon the study of 

 varieties as more important than that of well-fixed 

 species. It is in the former that we see nature still 

 at work, in the very act of producing those wonderful 

 modifications of form, that endless variety of colour, 

 and that complicated harmony of relations, which 

 gratify every sense and give occupation to every 

 faculty of the true lover of nature. 



Variation as specially influenced by Locality. 



The phenomena of variation as influenced by locality 

 have not hitherto received much attention. Botanists, 



