RECENT LITERATURE. 23 



and scarcer, for they ultimately become absorbed into public libraries 

 and cease to pass from one owner to another. We could mention 

 several important entomological works of which we believe there are 

 probably not more than a hundred, twenty-five, or, in one case, possibly 

 barely half-a-dozen complete copies in existence. But besides this, 

 the number of public libraries keeps on increasing, and so likewise the 

 number of entomologists who require such books ; and therefore the 

 available supply actually diminishes in proportion to the demand. 



"Without being quite so rare as the books to which we have alluded, 

 Hiibner's works are now very scarce, and frequently fetch an extra- 

 vagant price if an occasional copy turns up ; and M. Wytsman has 

 done a real service to entomologists by offering them a reissue of 

 Hiibner's two great works on Exotic Lepidoptera : the ' Sammlung 

 exotischer Schmetterlinge,' and the ' Zutrage zur Sammlung exotischer 

 Schmetterlinge.' 



The former of these consists of three quarto volumes of plates, 

 each plate illustrating a single species, and consisting generally of two 

 or four figures. Of these there are 439, the greater part representing 

 butterflies. The first two volumes were issued between 180G and 1824, 

 and have a complicated nomenclature ; a trinomial nomenclature 

 being used in the first volume, and a binomial nomenclature in the 

 second. Each volume has a title-page and index, but no other text 

 except a few odd pages, each giving a full account of a single species, 

 on one side the page in Latin, and on the other in German. The 

 commencement of a third volume was issued by Geyer after Hiibner's 

 death ; there is no title-page nor index to these plates, but a binomial 

 nomenclature is used, and the plates are distinguished from the others 

 by having the localites added at the foot. 



Hiibner's 'Zutrjige' illustrates smaller Lepidoptera, chiefly moths; 

 and gives an upper and under side of each species, several species being 

 represented on the same plate. It consists of five decades, each containing 

 figures of 100 species, or 1000 figures of 500 species in all, and was 

 published between 1818 and 1832, the later decades being by Geyer. 

 The letterpress is in German, but rather meagre ; and the indices are 

 good. This is one of the very few works of Hiibner's to which he 

 published the complete letterpress. 



These are the valuable works which M. Wytsman is now reissuing, 

 at a comparatively low price ; and as the edition even of this reissue 

 is necessarily limited by the probable demand, we should advise all 

 those who require a good series of illustrations of Exotic Lepidoptera 

 to secure it while it is still obtainable. 



The seven parts which have now been published include the first 

 seventy plates of the ' Sammlung,' illustrating seventy species of various 

 groups of Nymphalidiie and Lemoniidre (mostly American, though 

 some are Indian, and a few African), many of which were illustrated 

 in this work for the first time. 



The original indices and letterpress will be reprinted at the close 

 of the work, and Mr. Kirby has undertaken to prepare additional indices 

 giving the modern nomenclature of the species, and to add such notes 

 on the various species figured as may appear to be necessary or 

 desirable. These will be printed in German, to render them uniform 

 with the letterpress of the original works. 



