68 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



narrative, while, from being more illustrative than 

 descriptive, they exercised little or no influence in 

 maturing or improving systematic classification. 

 The chief of these we shall, therefore, now enumerate. 

 Some of them exhibit the method of Linnaeus ; 

 others, that of Fabricius ; and a few merely describe 

 the insects that are figured. They may all, how- 

 ever, be considered as belonging to this epoch of 

 the science, when entomologists had no other divi- 

 sions than, orders, genera, and species — when fami- 

 lies and sub-families had not been detected — and 

 when, in short, the augmentation of species was con- 

 sidered the most important object of the Naturalist. 

 The beautiful coloured plates of European Lepi- 

 doptera by Ernst*, though drawn with little taste, 

 are very faithful, and constitute a valuable set of 

 elucidations of this order: the letterpress is by 

 Father Engramelle, an Augustine monk, and is 

 merely confined to the subjects figured. About the 

 same time, another illustrated work, on the very- 

 same subject, was commenced, in German, by Esper t, 

 a painter of Nuremberg, which continued to be 

 published, at intervals, until it reached five volumes, 

 when it was discontinued ; and even these are now 



* Ernst and Engramelle. Papillons d'Europe, peints 

 d'apres Nature. Paris, 1779 — 1793. 8 vols, royal 4to. M. 

 Cuvier is incorrect in stating there are only six volumes of 

 this work. See Reg. Anim. tome iv. p. 1.16. The last part of 

 vol. viii. is excessively rare. 



f E. J. C. Esper. Die Schmetterlingen in Abbildungen, 

 &c. ; or, the Lepidopterous Insects of Europe, figured and 

 described from Nature. Erlang, 1777—1794. 5 vols. 4to. 

 (The Reg. Animal erroneously states that there are only four.) 



