( 
generic descriptions, wherein I have only noticed the labrum 
and mandibles, which sometimes yield a subsidiary character, 
as in Diodontus, Tachytes, &c.; but even these might be 
dispensed with, for the alary system strictly applied will be 
found to bring together insects of the same habit and 
economy, or when there is a discrepancy of habit it may be 
sometimes useful to make it subgeneric. The advantages 
derivable from the use of external characters are too appa- 
rent to require further justification, and the investigation of 
the cibarial apparatus is of consequence only to the com- 
parative anatomist, to display the gradual divarication of 
form from an original type; but they will still doubtlessly 
be deemed of importance to all who wish to make difficult 
and obscure what nature has rendered so simple and clear. 
It is very evident that generic subdivisions are extremely 
artificial, for the leaps nature is thereby caused to make, and 
the great difference in the value of genera, prove what 
extensive discoveries we have yet before us, and which, I 
conceive, when made, and all the created species fully ascer- 
tained, that the true system will be found to be neither 
circular, square, nor oval, neither dichotomous, quinary, 
nor septenary, but a uniform meshwork of organisation, 
spread like a net over the universe. But what gaps remain 
to be filled! We are truly as yet scarcely upon the threshold 
of the great temple and consequently still remote from the 
adytum where the veiled statue reposes. We have not yet 
learnt our alphabet, for species are the letters whereby the 
book of nature is to be read. 
But to prove that I have not neglected what has been 
unduly considered of so much importance I will insert a 
few generalities upon the oral organs. They consist of the 
labrum, mandibles, maxillz and its palpi, the tongue, and 
the labium with its appendages. The Lasrum is always 
