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 Public Instruction Collection 



The entomological treasures of the Museum of Natural History which belongs 

 to the public instruction service of Quebec consist for the most part of the Pro- 

 vancher collections. But it contains also two other notable collections. One is the 

 Saint-Cyr collection which is a general one, but not very extensive. It was formed 

 by the late D. N. Saint-Cyr, who became the first director of the Museum of 

 Public Instruction, and who studied botany much more than entomology. The 

 other collection referred to is the precious Fyles' collection. Before going to reside 

 at Hull, P. Q., the Reverend Dr. Fyles, one of the renowned entomologists of 

 America, wished to leave in Quebec his collection of Lepidoptera, and the Mu- 

 seum of Public Instruction arranged to acquire it. Dr. Fyles worked for forty 

 years in building up this collection, the result of his hunts in various parts of the 

 Province of Quebec. It comprises more than two thousand species of Lepidoptera, 

 some of which are of great rarity. One might say that it contains nearly all the 

 Quebec species. It is all named, and as Dr. Fives is a specialist, whom we know, it 

 win be a source of authority for exact determination of our butterflies, if the 

 classification were not still in an unstable state which makes it the despair of the 

 amateur. In any event, the Fyles collection is a thing of beauty in its marvellous 

 arrangement and in the perfection of the specimens which is contains, and which 

 number two or three for each species. 



A long time ago — that is to say 30 years — the Minister of Agriculture of 

 Quebec obtained possession of his entomological collection, which was also 

 later entrusted it to the care of I'lnstruction Publique. One may say that this col- 

 lection formed the nucleus of what is to-day the important Museum of Public 

 Instruction. This collection, such as it was, still exists in the Museum of the 

 Palais legislatif. 



After the death of Provancher in 1892. the Government of the Province of 

 Quebec obtained possession of his entomological collection, which was also 

 placed in the Museum of Public Instruction. It was then that to my care was 

 entrusted the preservation of the principal entomological collections of my re- 

 gretted master and illustrious friend, collections which in former times I had 

 studied under his direction, and which contained more than one specimen cap- 

 tured by myself. 



These two Provancher collections are in a perfect state of preservation. They 

 have a special importance and value from a scientific standpoint, because they 

 contain the greater part of the TYPE specimens on which Provancher founded 

 his hundreds of new species which he named and described in his publications. 

 Notwithstanding the frequent modifications that scientific progress has brought 

 in-tt) entomological classification, I have been very careful to make no changes in 

 the arrangement and determination of these collections which, to my mind, should 

 be preserved as a sort of historical monument. Further, and above all, these col- 

 lections are to some extent like a commentarv on the entomological treatises of 



