146 



side of the inferior wings, and that of Aglaia on the other ; thereby proving it 

 to be merely a variety : and Haworth mentions " Detecta Femina Olim D. Wilks, 

 at ubi nescio." 



Sir P. Walker had specimens in his possession, and I saw some large and fine 

 Aglaia in the Isle of Arran, but could not take any. Mr. Bree, of Allesley, has 

 figured M. Dia, and also two varieties of A. Aglaia, in Loudon, vol. 5, p. 749, 

 fig. 122, as Adippe ? according to the opinion of Mr. Stephens ; but in his own 

 (Mr. Bree's) opinion, Aglaia. Mr. Curtis has a very fine variety of Adippe 

 taken, near Colchester, by Dr. Maclean, but it is very distinct from the above. 

 I once found the larva of Adippe in the New Forest, June 1st, 1824. I have 

 seen the suffusion of black spots in some species so powerful as to lose the 

 genuine character so completely as to appear wholly black, instead of fulvous, 

 with black spots ( Selene for one). 



On the APPLICATION of the PRINCIPLES of INDUCTION to the 

 INVESTIGATION of the VEGETABLE KINGDOM, and the IN- 

 FERENCES in RELATION to NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



By Robert Dickson, M.D., F.L.S. 



LECTURER ON BOTANV AT ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL AND THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 



WEBB-STREET, LONDON. 



The members of the vegetable kingdom claim our regard, by ministering to 

 more of the senses than any other objects of creation. The eye is delighted by 

 their symmetry and elegance, as well as by their varied and brilliant hues — the 

 touch is sometimes pleased by their smoothness or softness — the smell is regaled 

 by their perfume — and the taste gratified by their flavour. 



Yet it is not to be denied that, attractive though they be from thus ministering 

 to the external senses of sight, smell, and taste, the degree to which these latter 

 are capable of determining the qualities of plants, is vastly inferior to that of the 

 animals which feed upon them. Animals, may, indeed, commit an error, and eat 

 some poisonous plant ; but this is rather to be attributed to their being previously 

 affected with some disease, by which the fine sense . of smell has been lost, and 

 the power of discrimination destroyed, than to an original deficiency of instinct : 

 for, as a general rule, animals not only avoid particular plants of a poisonous kind, 

 but whole tribes of plants possessed of noxious qualities. Neither oxen, horses, 

 pigs, sheep, nor goats will eat a single solanaceous plant (Nightshade, tribe) ex- 



