xlvi 



with such an approach to regularity and of such uniform ex- 

 cellence, amid the distractions of professorial duties and other 

 official work. Feeling my own inability to offer any opinion on 

 its various merits or defects, I have thought it well to obtain 

 some estimate of these from my friend and predecessor Mr. Bates, 

 who has, I know, had occasion to examine critically a large 

 portion of Lacordaire's work. He informs me that the dis- 

 tinguishing merits of the 'Genera' are, its completeness (scarcely 

 a single described genus having been overlooked); the justness 

 and accuracy of the characters given, and the clearness of its style 

 and arrangement. In the aptitude and neatness with which the 

 synoptical tables of tribes and genera are constructed, Mr. Bates 

 thinks he has excelled all other entomological writers ; and he is 

 also pre-eminent in the instinctive appreciation of genera and 

 groups in those cases where structure is so variable that no 

 logical definition can be found, and in the admirable manner in 

 which he helps the student to find his way amongst them, by 

 means of short general descriptions of facies, colour and other 

 superficial characters. Two defects are indicated by Mr. Bates : — 

 1st, the exclusively systematic point of view from which the 

 subject is treated, no mention being made of the varied functions 

 connected with the characters employed : in consequence of this 

 he sometimes confounds adaptive or analogical characters with 

 those indicating real affinity : 2nd, the absence of groups between 

 the Order and the long series of independent families. The first 

 defect, Mr. Bates himself remarks, would be considered by some 

 entomologists rather as a merit ; but is it not more likely that 

 the exigences of space and time compelled Lacordaire, against 

 his will, to restrict himself almost wholly to rigid technical 

 classification ? There are, I think, indications of this in his 

 often copious descriptions of the habits and economy, as well 

 as of the structural peculiarities of the families. The second 

 deficiency would probably have been supplied at the end of the 

 work, where, having completed the examination of his materials, 

 he might have given us, as the crowning result, a classification of 

 the families into higher groups. 



A few words must be devoted to his character, as painted by 

 his friends and pupils. He was of a gay and joyous disposition, 

 full of spirit, and an excellent speaker, often relieving his lectures 

 by anecdotes of his early wanderings in the forests or the deserts 



