LÉPIDOPTÉROLOGIE COMPAREE 19 



presently, colour-pnnting supcrseded the old faithful labonous 

 process, and latcr chromo- lithography, thc art may be said to 

 havc bccn lost to popular publications. The German presses 

 from 18/O onwards put forth heavily coloured plates chiefly 

 rcmarkable as showuig tlu^ innitations of colour prniting-; for 

 no painter vvho is not also a kecn observer and naturalist can 

 hope to rcproduco thc mhnitc variation of msect ornament, and 

 thc illustrators of our Nature picturc books, with few exceptions, 

 hâve been — ^machmes. In M. j. Culot, of Geneva, and his 

 daughters, who work under his direction. M. Oberthiir has found 

 his 77ierle blanc. ChrOiuo-lithography is used m the hrst two, and 

 smallest, volumes of " Lépidoptérologie Comparée " only. The 

 process is secn at its best, but obviously lacks the lustre and 

 convmcing accuracy of colour characteristic of the many thou- 

 sands of hand-pamted insect portraits, among vvhich it would 

 be difRcult to detoct a single instance where the copy is not 

 exquisitely truc to thc original. They hâve this further merit. 

 Whereas the butterfly and moth in death, like the stuffed birds 

 m the cases of the Natural Histor\' Muséum, lose the glow and 

 gloss of the hvmg créature, thèse pictures and studies shine with 

 the perfection of vitality. Fast colours therc are, of course, in 

 Nature, but few will for long withstand the iight of day. Even 

 in the drawers of the cabinet, or in airtight store boxes, the 

 délicate greens of the " Emeralds. " the soft dusky browns 

 of the Alpine " Rmglets, '' and thc fiery orange-reds of the 

 " Coppers " are fugitive and evanescent. On the other hand, 

 turnmg over the pages of Moufet's " Theatrum " one day, the 

 writer was amazed to fmd how little âge had staled the crimson 

 pmks of the " Burnets. " Some seventeenth or c^ghteenth cen- 

 tury collector had plastered the nide wc-odcuts with their ori- 

 ginals. The majonty had lost ail semblance of natural colour, 

 but two or three " Burnets, " preserved between the f aded leaves 

 of the first zoological work ever published m England, retamed 

 their pristine freshness. 



