224 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



panied by the most careful and detailed illustrations. But good figures 

 are difficult to obtain. With admiration and envy I look at the splendid 

 figures, unsurpassed in beauty and accuracy, that adorn, and in the true 

 meaning'of the word, illustrate, Schioedte's monumental work, and I lose 

 heart if I compare them with the cheap process figures of the most 

 recent American works. How often have I seen the most splendid and 

 accurate drawings made by our best draftsmen tortured into an irrecog- 

 nizable mess by this modern process ! I fully comprehend the many 

 practical obstacles in the way of having our entomological publications 

 illustrated with costly plates, but I have often asked myself why it is that 

 we do not return to the trusty lithography or the faithful wood engraving 

 which have illustrated many famous entomological works formerly produced 

 in America. I regret that I am unable to give an answer to this question, 

 beyond expressing the hope that a time will come when again a small 

 amount of good and careful work will be more appreciated than a great 

 deal of quick but much less satisfactory work. 



In summing up the present state of the biology of our Coleoptera all 

 I can say is that some good work has been produced, but that much more 

 remains to be done on all sides. It is here, more than in systematic 

 coleopterology, that we need more observations, more study, more work, 

 and more workers. 



Let me close my remarks with an appeal for more work and more 

 workers in this field; and let me address this appeal to a class of men who 

 by their training, their knowledge, their facilities for work, are best fitted 

 to render assistance. I mean the entomologists of our Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations. It has been asserted, not only once, but repeatedly, 

 before this Club and elsewhere, that the economic entomologists are too 

 much overburdened with professional duties to do any work in pure 

 science. In reply let me point out that a great deal of the best work in 

 entomology has been the work of love, and not of paid labour ; that a great 

 proportion of the best work in all branches of entomological science has 

 been produced by men in the leisure moments of a busy professional life. 

 Are our Station entomologists more overburdened with duties than a hard 

 working teacher or a hard working physician ? Above all, do not let us 

 forget that the study of insects is no work, but that it is a recreation of 

 the purest kind, a source of the highest pleasure ; and no other science 

 possesses a more powerful and fascinating attraction th^n our beloved 

 entomology. 



