THE 



Witt's iloiU/;/,,^^ 



^y^ VOLUME XX. V//^ 



PHILIPP CHRISTOPH ZELLER, 

 BY H. T. STAINTON, F.B.S. 



PMlipp Christopli Zeller (to quote his own words) " was born 

 April 9th, 1808, at Steinheim, in the Kingdom of Wiirttemberg." (As it 

 appears there are two Steinheims in Wiirttemberg, Hagen, in his 

 " Bibliotheca Entomologica," mentions more precisely that it was at 

 Steinheim on the Miirr ; this is only two miles from Marbach, the birth- 

 place of Schiller). "Early in life," he says, "he came to Erankfort on 

 the Oder, so that he had no recollection of the place of his birth. How 

 and when there first arose in him a love for Lepidoptera,''' he, writing 

 in 1851, "had no recollection, but," he adds, "it must have been in very 

 early youth." 



" My father disliked this fancy of mine, and I can still very well 

 remember how, on one occasion, I was beaten, when, instead of executing 

 some commission, I went chasing Pieris brassicce, which, as at that time 

 I had no entomological apparatus, must have been by the aid of my 

 jacket 'or overcoat. But my predilection for Butterflies was not driven 

 out of me, on the contrary, it developed more and more, and when I 

 went to the Grymnasium, I made many excursions after Lepidoptera 

 instead of going into the mathematical lecture-room, which was not 

 quite so much to my taste." 



" In 1823 I commenced a Lepidopterological Journal, and I also 

 described larvae and painted butterflies ; these descriptions and figures 

 are now mostly lost, as afterwards, I became ashamed of them. At 

 the Gymnasium I received no instruction in Natural History, but I owe 

 much to my old friend Metzner, who lent me books, of which I copied 

 out the greater part. This system of copying, which I continued in 

 after years, has, notwithstanding my limited means, placed me, by 

 degrees, in possession of a more complete literature of my hobby than 

 one finds amongst most Lepidopterologists." 



" It was not till I went to the University of Berlin that I had any 

 instruction in Natural History, and even then only in Botany, as I 

 looked upon Natural History only as an object of relaxation, and for 



A 



1883. 



