258 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



in different fkuations ; {he has, in like manner, 

 divided each genus of infects into different fpecies, 

 in order to adapt them to inhabit different fpecies 

 of plants. For this reafon fhe has painted, and 

 numbered, in a thoufand different but invariable 

 ways, the almoft infinite divifions of the fame 

 branch. For example, we conftantly find on the 

 elm the beautiful butterfly, called the gold- bro- 

 cade, on account of it's rich colouring. That 

 which goes by the name of the four omicrons, and 

 which lives I know not where, always produces 

 defcendants impreffed with that Greek character, 

 four times, on their wings. There is a fpecies of 

 bee with five claws, which lives on radiated flowers 

 only ; without thofe claws, fhe could not cling fafl 

 to the plane mirrors of thofe flowers, and load 

 herfelf from their ftamina, fo eafîly as the common 

 bee, which ufually labours at the bottom of thofe 

 which have a deep corolla. 



Not that I imagine any one plant nourifhes, in 

 it's different varieties, all the collateral branches 

 of one family of infects. I believe that each genus 

 of thefe extends much farther than the genus of 

 plants which ferves as it's principal bafis. In this, 

 Nature manifefts another of her Laws, by virtue 

 of which fhe has rendered that the beft which is 

 the molt common. As the animal is of a nature 

 fuperior to the vegetable, the fpecies of the firft 



are 



