REAUMUR'S PROJECT. 7 



cages, and condescend even to take a general survey of the 

 figures and fashions, the costumes and customs of other Insect 

 tribes, when so collected in a convenient focus as to require 

 only the trouble of looking at, instead of looking for. Might 

 we not insure a modicum of royal and noble patronage by the 

 introduction of some such foreigners as a company of Walking 

 Leaves, or a group of Spectral Branches from China, providing 

 a grand morning concert of screaming Cicadas from Greece or 

 Italy, and an evening illumination of Chinese Lanthorn Carriers 

 and American Fire-Flies. 



But to leave trifling, let us now recur to that perpetual 

 charm of the Insect world winch consists in its intimate con- 

 nection with the vegetable kingdom. Viewed according to their 

 mutual relations of use and adaptation, the flower and the 

 leaf seem almost instinct as well as associate with animate 

 existence, while their Insect frequenters appear, in return, to 

 have borrowed a share of floral elegance and sweetness. 

 Various writers on Insects'* afford partial information as to the 

 plants on which they are generally to be found, and a little 

 French workt treats wholly on this subject; but it is 

 still very imperfectly explored, and sure to be attended in 

 its cultivation with discoveries of new Insects, and unobserved 

 habits of those already known. As an instance of their 

 numbers and variety we are told that one collector found in 



* Curtis in his British Entomology ; Sammouelle in the Entomologist's Com- 

 panion ; Westwood in his Arcana. 



f La Flore des Insectophiles by M. de Brez. 



