532 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897.. 



induce other workers in other departments of entomology to accept 

 his methods so generally. 



To be recognized, a species must be described and named, and in 

 entomology, especially, there is a great field for one afflicted by the 

 mihi itch. But while, by force of circumstances, Dr. Horn was 

 occasionally compelled to describe species singly, yet this was always 

 a disagreeable task, the greatest number of the species named by 

 him, and these run well over a thousand, being described in mono- 

 graphic or systematic papers and their relationship to those already 

 named, properly brought out. He always claimed that there was no 

 evidence that an insect was really suffering for the want of a name, 

 and that no wrong would be done to it by postponing the christen- 

 ing for a brief period. 



To him a species was not of interest in itself, or merely as a new 

 thing that was to be named. It was of the greatest interest only 

 when it filled a gap in a series. Species to him were steps, halting 

 places in the march toward a specific structure or combination of 

 structures, and he was always delighted when a particularly long 

 stretch of territory was broken by a new discovery. 



The result of this mode of looking at species is seen in his arrange- 

 ment of tables and synopses ; always the effort is to express the 

 structural relations of the forms to each other, and the various lines 

 that diverge from each obvious type. It is also shown in his descrij)- 

 tion of species, which are models of clear statement in which essen- 

 tials are emphasized, structure is given the foremost rank, and minor 

 details are often mentioned only as a mere incident. The important 

 point to him was the combination of characters ; the individual was 

 useful only as an evidence that such a combination actually existed. 



In this matter of specific descriptions I may be allowed to quote 

 the opinion of Mr. Henry Ulke of Washington, D. C, the oldest of 

 the American entomologists to-day, the companion and friend of Dr. 

 Leconte almost from the beginning of his work, and equally the 

 friend and fellow-worker of Dr. Horn. He says " Up to this time 

 it was necessary for all entomologists, even Horn, to consult the 

 types before beginning any monographic work, to ascertain what the 

 describer meant, and to visit Cambridge, London, Paris, or other 

 places for that purpose. With Horn this is not necessary. His de- 

 scriptions are so ideally accurate that one is never in doubt as to 

 which species is under examination. His lucidity and clearness 

 often remind me of a well executed portrait where the resemblance 

 to the original is so striking as to be recognized at the first glance." 



