494 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



as well as of Astoria, Mr. Irving gives an in- 

 teresting account. We parted with the trap- 

 pers on what I now know to be the Humboldt 

 River of Utah, and in six weeks reached the 

 Hudson Bay Company's fort, Walla Walla, 

 through a country so poor in furs that it 

 had been little frequented by their traders. 

 So the Indians showed us their usual native 

 kindness and hospitality. And here let me 

 say, after a long acquaintance with them, 

 that Indians, uucontaminated by the whites, 

 are honest, truthful, and hospitable. 



John Ball. 

 Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 5, 1876. 



THE DISCOVERY OF A SPECIES OF BOR- 

 ING MOTH IN FLORIDA. 



To the Editor of The Popular Science Monthly. 

 The notice in the June number of The 

 Popular Science Monthly (p. 250) of the 

 species of Ophideres, moths which possess 

 a trunk so rigid as to be able to pierce the 

 rinds of oranges and suck their juice, has 

 brought to light the occurrence of a species 

 of the genus in Florida. The specimen 

 which I have examined was taken by Mr. 

 Roland Thaxter, of Newtonville, Massa- 

 chusetts, near Appalachicola, Florida, on 



March 24th of this year. Mr. Thaxter, who 

 is already known for his collections of our 

 Northern Noctum, preparing them beauti- 

 fully for the cabinet, has added greatly to 

 our knowledge of this group ; the species 

 Eutolype Rolandi and Dicopis Thaxterianus 

 have been named for him. The present 

 discovery, which he has made during a win- 

 ter's trip to Florida, is equally interesting. 

 The Florida specimen seems to me undoubt- 

 edly to be Ophideres materna (Linn.), a spe- 

 cies proper to the East Indies, but which 

 Guenee records also from Brazil, conject- 

 uring that it had been transported thither 

 by commerce. I have examined the tere- 

 brant trunk under the microscope, and it 

 agrees in the main with the representation 

 of that of Ophideres fullonica given in The 

 Popular Science Monthly (p. 251). It is 

 not possible to compare it more nearly 

 without mounting the end of the trunk as a 

 microscopic object, which the rarity of the 

 single specimen prevents. It is not un- 

 likely, now that the species is found, that it 

 will be discovered in larger numbers, while 

 the interesting question as to its introduc- 

 tion into Florida will engage attention. 

 The most probable conjecture will associate 

 it with its food-plant. 



A. R. Grote. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE. 



THE importance of science is every- 

 where conceded. As affording a 

 knowledge of the operations of Nature, 

 which can be taken advantage of by 

 multiplying the resources and increas- 

 ing the productiveness of industry, and 

 by guiding art into the most economi- 

 cal ways, everybody admits that sci- 

 ence is doing a beneficent work for 

 the world. And even in the region of 

 ideas, as a basis for the formation of 

 opinions and a corrective of old errors, 

 the importance of science is freely ac- 

 knowledged. That science is something 

 of universal moment, and of the deep- 

 est interest it is almost superfluous to 

 argue ; its recognition is so far assured. 



But science is also, and as a conse- 

 quence of its importance, something to 

 be promoted. It is something of which 

 myriads of human beings scattered over 

 the globe know nothing ; which the 

 world got along without for more ages 

 than we can count; which slowly arose 

 in these latter centuries and grew against 

 steady resistance, and which has at last 

 among certain nations come to be a 

 separate interest cherished by a portion 

 of the cultivated classes, and so dis- 

 tinctly recognized as needing care and 

 encouragement that many organizations 

 have arisen to promote these objects. 

 Royal societies for the " promotion of 

 natural knowledge," academies of sci- 

 ence in all the chief cities, special socie- 



