STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 339 



APPLE. LEAVES. 



points along each side, and two rows of pale yellow ones upon the 

 back, with four larger bright orange or red ones anteriorly, all 

 ending in little black prickles; attaching its large pod-like rusty 

 gray cocoon to the side of a limb. The moth large, its wings dark 

 gray, each with a large white crescent-like spot in the centre, 

 margined with red, and beyond this a red band crossing both 

 wings and margined on its fore side with white upon the hind pair. 

 Appears in June. Width five to seven inches. See Harris' 

 Treatise, p. 299. 



A few words in explanation of the name of this moth may not 

 be amiss in this connection. Sir James Edwin Smith says " we 

 cannot in this instance commend the nomenclature of Linnaeus, 

 nor is it easy to conjecture what connection he imagined between 

 this moth, magnificent as it is, and the city of Athens, to which 

 its name implies it to belong." And Dr. Harris, echoing the same 

 sentiment, remarks, " Cecropia was the ancient name of the city 

 of Athens; its application, by Linnaeus, to this moth, is inexpli- 

 cable." The great legislator of this department of human know- 

 ledge, as he is expressively Styled by Latreille, it has frequently 

 been remarked, was endowed with a genius which few of his dis- 

 ciples have inherited, for selecting names for natural objects, whieli 

 are most appropriate and happy. The idea which was present in 

 the mind of Linnaeus, when he named this splendid moth, we 

 think is sufficiently evident. The Athenians were the most polished 

 and refined people of antiquity. The moths are the most delicate 

 and elegant of insects; they are the Athenians of their race. 

 Cecrops was the founder, the head of the Athenian people. Whe-u 

 tlie names of men were bestowed upon cities, ships or otlior 

 objects regarded as being of the feminine gender, classical usa,ij;e 

 changed these names to the feminine form. The moths (Plialsenfi) 

 being feminine, and the name of Cecrops being more euphonious 

 in this ibrm,probably induced Linnaeus to change it in the manner 

 he did. The name thus implies this to be the leader, the head of 

 the most elegant tribe of insects, or in other words, tlie first of all 

 the insect kind. What name more appropriate can be invented 

 for this most sumptuous moth? It was in the cabinet of Queen 

 Ulrica that Linnjeus met with this sj^cies, and it appears that 

 after having bestowed upon it this name, another s]>ecies became 



