28 PACKING SPECIMENS ALREAD\ EXPANDED, &C. 



If you wish to send to California or far west, or the West, it takes longer 

 and is as' expensive, and there is more risk than in sending to or from Egypt. 

 The very best way to get your specimens to or from there, if there be not too 

 large a quantity, is to use the mail, but if you have such quantity as will make 

 a bulk of 1 to Itj cubic feet, use the Express Cos. it will cost frightfully 

 but can't be helped ; or, if yet larger numbers that perhaps your boxes will 

 fill an outer case of 24 ins. x 18 x 18, or larger, then use the Freight lines, 

 but when you deliver your box at the Railroad Freight Office be sure to get a 

 receipt and a duplicate receipt ; the first you keep in some safe place, the 

 second you send by mail to your consignee, for you will probably, before the 

 boxes reach their destination (if they have any great distance to go), have to 

 begin to trace where they are from both ends of the line ; I had the pleasure 

 once of amusing myself for nearly six months that w T ay ; yes, it actually took 

 over five months to get a box from San Francisco to Reading, but the box 

 was a large one and only cost $5.00 freight ; had it came by express it would 

 have cost about $50.00. 



Finally, never send or allow things to be sent by sailing-vessels when you 

 can use steamers ; if you do, the consequences are, that they are ten times as 

 long on their way, and arrive at their destination ruined by mould. 



If you live in the United States, never have things sent to you that you 

 will have to try to get out of the Custom House yourself, for they will re- 

 main there till they rot, as far as you are concerned, for you can't get them 

 out you can't do it, don't try it even ; if ever such an accident does occur, 

 apply directly to a Custom House broker and make up your mind it is going 

 to cost you as much, at least, to get it out of the Custom House as it did to 

 get there from any part of Europe; be resigned, thank God, when after many 

 days you get your box, and guard against the like occurring again in the 

 future. 



THE REARING OF LEPIDOPTERA FROM THE EGG AND 



CATERPILLAR. 



In order to get the CO-QX of dav butterflies it is necessarv to confine the live 



^) ' I/ V 



female along with the growing food-plant; this has been successfully done by 

 putting over the plant, if it be a small one, a nail-keg or barrel, out of which 

 the bottom has been knocked; the top of the keg, after it is placed over the 

 plant with the butterfly imprisoned, you cover with a cloth ; the female thus 

 imprisoned will deposit her eggs, from which in a few days the young cater- 

 pillars will emerge; for these, care must betaken in providing fresh food 

 and keeping out of the reach of ants, etc. ; glass jars with gau/e over the top 

 answer well for breeding cages for some of the smaller species, but the better 



fresh, and things generally in as near a stare as possible to what they ought to 

 be if the larvie were at large; the size of these cages is not material, but may 

 be made to suit the convenience. The larva will, after undergoing several 

 moults, or throwing o If of the old skin, transform into naked chryalis affixed 

 to the stems or leaves of the food-plant, or to the sides of breeding cage, by 



