31 



sious, to appropriate the balance to distant excursions, so that the two together 

 should not exceed $150 per annum. It was not my intention to consider either 

 of these appropriations for making collections as part of your salary, but con- 

 sidered both of them to be under my own control, to be used for either purpose, 

 according to circumstances. I must not be understood as meaning that you 

 were to keep a particular account of all the small items of expenditure, but 

 merely the sum total expended in any excursion, whether near Philadelphia 

 or distant, which can be easily done by putting a particular amount in your 

 pocket and seeing what you have left on your return, without troubling your- 

 self about the items. 



In regard to the particular manner of meeting the expenses of near collec- 

 tions, my view was, to advance to you a certain sum — say $50 — to be used for 

 this purpose, and when it was exhausted, that you would report the fact, and 

 receive such additional sum as might be required. 



I have endeavored above to explain my inte^itions at the time I made the ar- 

 rangement with you, and regret extremely that there should have been any 

 misunderstanding on the subject; if, however, you understand the matter dif- 

 Orently. it shall remain according to your understanding until the end of the 

 year. 



Mr. Knight has perhaps explained in part my views in relation to the publi- 

 cations of the Society, but it is quite impossible to explain them fullj/ in a letter. 

 I must therefore defer this subject until I have the pleasure of meeting you. 



To the above extract we behold his liberal plan for collecting the 

 insects of our country, appropriating from his own purse $450 per an- 

 num, without taking into account his own personal labors in collecting, 

 which were not small. In addition to this he purchased collections 

 wherever they were found, which could add to the number of species 

 in the Museum. Among them maybe mentioned that of Prof. Felipe 

 Poey, of the Island of Cuba, amounting in all to about 1^500 species : 

 namely, of Lepidoptera about 600 species; of Hymenoptera about 350 ; 

 of Coleoptera 1100, &c., &c. The total number of specimens were about 

 SOOO. That celebrated naturalist has been forty years in making this 

 vollection, and it is supposed to be the best collection of Cuban insects 

 extant. It contained a vast number of new and undescribed species. 

 and the doctor immediately took measures to have them described. 

 Mr. E. T. Cressou, in his work on the Hymenoptera of Cuba, published 

 in the Society's " Proceedings," Vol. IV, pp. 1 — 200, has described 

 250 new species of that order. Mr. A. R. Grote, of New York, in his 

 work on the Sphingidae of Cuba, also published in the " Proceedings." 

 Vol. V, has described 9 new species of that family. 



Philadelphia, June 17, 1861. 

 I have put in tlie box a few species of Diptera, which are very common at 

 Newark, and of which I have plenty of specimens. Some of the others I think 

 are tolerably common, but as they belong to families which I have not yet stu- 

 died as to Genera, and in which Osten Sacken declined even to name the Ge- 



