LEPIDOPTEROLOGY. 83 



incompavably executed, that is a real Journal of Variation, a work 

 whose object is the discussion of " Hj^bridisations, geographical 

 variations, and the laws that govern the production of aberrations."''' 



Not the least claim to our admiration is the obedience of the 

 author to a proposition which he reiterates in the preface of the 

 third fascicule, " Unless the description is supported by a good figure, 

 a name shall not be valid." We would enlarge this so far as to ask for 

 figures of structural details, in all difficult and critical cases. 



M. Oberthiir says that the greater his experience the more does 

 he regard it as indispensable to accompany a description by a good figure, 

 in order to render it intelligible. Those, he says, who, considering 

 the cost and delay attending the production of plates, persist in piling 

 up in the Magazines a heap of crude descriptions, illustrated by no 

 figure, are not merel}' doing a barren work, but they are creating 

 difficulties and obscurities which seriously obstruct the progress of 

 our cherished studies. He fortifies this position by many facts and 

 considerations that we have no room to reproduce. He quotes the 

 case of Guenee, who most honestl}^ confessed, that having mislaid the 

 type of a species described by himself, he could not tell whether 

 further specimens belonged to it or not. How abundantly we find 

 cases where a monographer experiences insuperable difficulties when 

 he cannot see or find the " type," and how constantly he insists on 

 seeing it if possible. In every instance this is an assertion of the 

 futility of descriptions, and not seldom of the inaccuracy of figures. 

 M. Oberthiir is to be congratulated on having obtained the assistance 

 of M. J. Culot, in the production of the plates of Fasc. iii. and 

 Fasc. iv. M. Culot's work both here, in the lco)ioifraphy of the Moths 

 and Geometers of Europe, and in the Bulletin of the Geneva 

 Society, are quite the acme of lithographic illustrations, and so 

 uniformly good are they that we cannot select one for greater 

 admiration than the others. 



The dedication of Fasc. iv. to his dear grandson is very touching, 

 and must appeal to many another reader. The delicate picture he 

 draws of the search for L. aef/on by himself and his grandson in the 

 previous summer, and of their enjoyment of the picturesque scenery 

 they explored, have a charm that could only be achieved by that 

 subtle genius for expressing delicate phases of artistic feeling that is 

 a rare endowment on this side of the Channel. His pious reference to 

 the way in which his grandfather, half a century ago, made him an 

 Entomologist, and his hope that his grandson will pass on to his 

 unborn descendants the family tradition, are of gi'eat interest 

 biographically, and show us our great French Lepidopterist not as 

 a mere sporadic phenomenon, but as a normal, if highly developed, 

 example of a race devoted to the study and admiration of nature, and 

 possessed of a devout veneration for all that it implies. 



He quotes from Linnaeus " Finis Creationis Telluris est Gloria 

 Dei," as embodying his own views, as well as those of his forbears. 

 With him will agree all students and lovers of nature, and few will 

 think it necessary to interpret it in any narrow sense. 



Fasc. iv. continues the notes on the French and Algerian fauna 

 with the species of (Joenonijnipha not included in fasc. iii., and goes on 



* Preface to Fasc. i. 



