38 



I have not been able to etch at all, so that my work remains at a stand-still at present- 

 In a few weeks, when I am not so fully occupied as I am now, 1 intend to recommence 

 etchiug, wheu I shall be hapi^y to attempt your plates,* although I am afraid that 

 you overestimate my abilities to do them, etc. 



For the uext two or three years his work was still more or less inter- 

 rupted by Department affairs. There was now a divided interest. The 

 uew museum had been established, and to a certain extent it absorbed 

 his attention and his thoughts. Then in 1805 he spent several mouths in 

 Europe, as has been mentioned, the exhibition of insects in Paris call- 

 ing him abroad. I have his Paris note book, filled with pencil outlines 

 of insects, and with written descriptions, which tells how well he spent 

 his time while there. And the fact that the design of his work se- 

 cured to him the grand gold medal of the Emperor above all other 

 competitors was proof that it was i)ractical and valuable even at 

 that time, when it had not reached the half of its present scope or 

 dimensions. 



The writer became Mr. Glover's assistant in the Department of Ag- 

 riculture in 1867. By this time entomological science in America had 

 made such rapid strides and the study had become so widespread that 

 there were workers and observers In all parts of the country. Through 

 acquaintance and correspondence with many of these and through the 

 regular correspondence of the office he was now able to secure large 

 acquisitions of new material, so that the work, for a time partly neg- 

 lected, was now being j^ushed forward uninterruptedly, saving the in- 

 terruption of official hours, from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. As near as I can re- 

 call, on hasty examination of the plates, the Lepidoptera had been com- 

 pleted, at this time, to plate 67 and sujjplement D, the supplement series 

 having been commenced in order to keep the diurnals and their larvae 

 together ui^on consecutive plates as the work progressed, the numbered 

 plates being devoted to the moths. The Coleoptera had only reached 

 plate 28 ; the Orthoptera less than half its present number, 18 ; and the 

 remaining orders even a less number. 



Meanwhile the text to accompany the plates was begun on somewhat 

 the same priucii:>le as the ready-reference books which Mr. Glover had 

 from time to time prepared for his jirivate use. The earliest of these 

 reference books were compiled or prepared in the years of service in 

 the Patent Office (or perhaps even earlier), and at first, seemed to have 

 been used by him as " vest pocket editions" of notes on the habits of 

 common insects. They were tiny blanks books, measuring 2^ by 4 inches 

 (of the size of a small pocket diary, and no thicker), into which had been 

 closely copied, in penmanship as clear as copper-plate and as fine as 

 print (250 to 300 words to the page), the chief facts connected with the 

 natural history of well-known and injurious species, the food i)lants, 

 habitat and other brief data, the whole conveniently arranged and in- 



*The8e were drawings of the wing- veins of some thirty or forty species of Diptera, 

 and which he afterwards prepared. 



