Dec., '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 319 



tions from correspondents, and from naturalists specially 

 employed in visiting many of the previously unexplored dis- 

 tricts. The materials thus obtained have been partly retained 

 by the Editors in their own Collection, and partly so distribu- 

 ted as to be most readily available for the present work. In 

 addition to these materials, the Editors propose that all speci- 

 mens obtained by other travellers should be examined, wher- 

 ever they may be accessible so as to make the work as complete 

 a record as possible of what is known of the Animal and Vege- 

 table life of the country under investigation. 



" The work will be issued in Zoological and Botanical Parts. 

 Those relating to Zoology will contain portions of several sub- 

 jects. When the work is closed each subject will be complete 

 in itself ; and the whole will form a series of volumes of vari- 

 ous thicknesses, according to the extent of each subject. The 

 Botanical Parts will contain no other subject. 



' Each Zoological Part will contain twelve sheets (or 96 

 pages) of letterpress, and an average of six plates, most of 

 which will be lithographs coloured by hand. 



"Each Botanical Part will also contain twelve sheets of 

 letterpress and an average of six plates, a few of which will be 

 coloured. 



' As it is proposed to include all the materials that may come 

 to hand during the progress of the work, it is not possible to 

 give an exact estimate of its extent ; but it is believed that it 

 will not much exceed 60 Parts, equivalent to about 12 Volumes 

 of 500 pages each, of Zoology* and 20 Parts of Botany." 



A prospectus issued with Part 73, in February, 1889, states 

 " The issue (in Parts) was commenced in Septem- 

 ber, 1879, and has been continued to the present time 



The materials for this work have been gradually accumulated 

 since the end of the year 1857 ; but during the past nine years, 

 since the publication was commenced, the accessions in all 

 branches of Zoology have been very great, so that the extent 

 of the work has been largely increased. To give an idea con- 

 cisely of what has been already done in the- Insecta alone : the 

 number of species of various orders examined and catalogued 

 nearly reaches 15,000 ; of these upward of 7500 have been 



* The italics are nur>. - Ki>s. \ i 



