192 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



his death is not known to me ; at least it was some time before 1834 and 

 after 1824, where he is quoted by Th. Say in his Amer. Entomology by 

 Aiithicus bicolor. The father, F. V. Melsheimer, was in correspondence 

 with the well known German entomologist, A. W. Knoch, in Brunswick, 

 who states in the volume before mentioned that up to 1801 he had 

 received from him over 700 American insects. He gives still very valu- 

 able descriptions of 23 species. 



F. V. Melsheimer published, besides some papers on religious matters, 

 the well known catalogue, " A Catalogue of Insects of Pennsylvania," by 

 Fred. Val. Melsheimer, Minister of the Gospel, Hanover, York County ; 

 printed for the author by W. D. Lepper, 1806, Part I;, small 8vo., pp. 60. 



The catalogue (I am indebted for a copy to my friend, Ph. R. Uhler, 

 of Baltimore), is now very rare, and contains the names of 1,363 species 

 of beetles, among them 460 named by Knoch. It seems that at this time 

 Melsheimer had not received Knoch's book, published 1 801, as his names 

 do not coincide with those described by Knoch. As the dedication copy 

 of Knoch's book to Melsheimer is in the library of the Museum in Cam- 

 bridge, it came probably to Melsheimer after 1 806. This catalogue con- 

 tains the first list of American beetles, but without descriptions, and has 

 therefore only an historical value. Of the 1,363 species, only 205 are 

 now surely known, and only 134 are quoted in Dr. F. E. Melsheimer's 

 catalogue. 



After the death of the eldest son, the second, Ernst Friedrich Mel- 

 sheimer, inherited the collection and the library. He was a country 

 physician and lived near Dover, 14 miles north of Hanover. Zimmer- 

 mann visited him the next day, and his diary contains the following 

 statement : — 



" The house, rudely put together with boards, painted red, stood all 

 alone in the middle of a forest, and looked more like a hut. His wife 

 was at the spinning wheel. The reception was indeed very cordial, and 

 when he heard that his father's book was well known and mentioned in 

 German, English and French works, which he never had dreamt of, he 

 became animated and talked with great interest on entomological matters 

 and books.." 



Zimmermann wondered how he was able, in his isolated position, to 

 keep up such a lively interest in natural science, to collect so industri- 

 ously, and to study his small library, in which the magazines of lUiger 

 and Germar were the most prominent and most valued. Though he 



