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Naturalist's Dire. to ry there are more with Entomology in some of its 

 branches alter I In ir nam :s, than ever befi ire 



Mr. Smith says that in the May No. of "Ent. Am " he had given a 

 statement of what the Naturalist's Directory showed in this direction, and 

 proved how little the word "Ent." after a nam- signified in mam 

 instan< es. 



Prof. Peaho.lv said that in 1869 this matter came up before him and 

 he has tried to work out its solution for many years. lie had projected 

 a popular manual; but the longer he worked, the further off seemed the 

 end. There were two serious difficulties in the way. The first s, thai 

 the subject is so large that it is difficult for one man to c< >ver the ground 

 and keep the work within moderate bounds; and the second, that our 

 knowledge of many orders wasstill too incomplete for such a work which 

 should he simple and comprehensive. 



Prof. Underwood thinks we do not necessarily need such a com 

 prehensive work. The most successful manuals in botany, and such as 

 created most interest, where those that treated only a limited group, and 

 a limited fauna. A most useful treatise would he one embracing the in- 

 sects of the N.E. United States, as there the largest number of those who 

 would be interested in such a work would be found. 



Mr. S. W. Allis said, that one drawback is the want of knowledge 

 how a collection should be kept. He has known a number of young 

 men who started enthusiastically, and gathered a large lot of material: 

 suddenly the museum pests appeared and cleaned them out: effectualh 

 dampening their ardor. His idea would be to encourage students to 

 collect in special groups. The collections would be smaller, mure readib 

 kept, and there would be more apt to be good material amongst them. 



Prof. Riley thinks we could never render such a work as has been 

 proposed, popular. We do not want to make collectors, we want students. 

 who will take an interest in the work. There is great difficulty also in 

 getting any order outside of Coleoptera and LepidoMera in a popular and 

 yet accurate form, because so little is known of them. After all, in his 

 opinion, Entomologists, like poets, are born, and not made, and unless 

 they have the proper stuff in them, they cannot be made good workers. 

 Relerring again to the question of books; he a) way recommends; first. 

 II, oris Injurious Insects, a classic that will give acquaintance with main 

 common species, as well as a simple classification; second, Kirby ami 

 Spence; third, Westwood. He has had in mind an introductory work 

 to which WeStWOOd would be somewhat the model. He would treat, 

 perhaps, 100 families, taking a type of each, and giving a complete treat- 

 ise on it, so that the student could gain a knowledge of what classification 



