62 INTRODUCTION. 
cies have been named anew, varieties have been erected 
into species, and localities which have been carefully 
explored for twenty years, and whose productions are 
as well known as those of the neighborhood of London, 
have been considered as fertile of novelties as a 
newly discovered land. The errors which have thus 
arisen arc so numerous, that it would be impossible, 
and useless if it were possible, to notice them all ; 
but the writings of MM. Rossmassler, Mehke, and Des 
Moulins, where treating of American species, afford in- 
stances sufficient to confirm the remark. This ignorance 
of American authorities appears to have continued to the 
present time. M. Pfeiffer, in his Symbolce, published 
at Cassel in 1841 and 1842, gives descriptions of about 
twenty of Mr. Say's species, some of them, as he 
seems to suppose, for the first time. They were origin- 
ally described in tins country twenty-five years ago, and 
of nearly all of them several other descriptions, with 
figures, have been published from time to time. This 
evil is likely to increase, until a systematic effort is made 
on the part of American naturalists to correct it. The 
remedy is, to rely more upon themselves, and less 
upon the savans of other countries; to assume that 
they are as likely to understand the things before and 
around them as those who are so far removed ; and 
to claim the same notice and respect for what is done 
in the United States, as is accorded to the labors of nat- 
uralists in Europe. If these volumes should aid in excit- 
ing this spirit they will not have been entirely useless. 
