5'0 MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



highly valued such an acquisition as the manu- 

 scripts and drawings of so distinguished a zoologist. 

 The use he made of them is well known. They 

 formed a portion of the work on insects published 

 in England in 1634, under the title of " Insec- 

 torum sive minimorum Animalium Theatrum olim 

 ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque 

 Pennio, inchoatum ; tandem Tho. Movfeti, Londi- 

 n-atis opera sumptibusque maxime concinnatum, 

 auctum, perfectum, et ad vivum expressis iconibus 

 supra quingentis illustratum." Schmiedel supposes 

 that it is chiefly the figures of butterflies that were 

 obtained from Gesner. These are, in most cases, 

 recognisable, but they cannot be compared to the 

 icons of plants. 



Although Gesner was unable to complete the 



then interested entomologists, the following extract from a let- 

 ter written by Penny to Camerarius is worth quotation. " Te 

 exoro, si quid certi de insectis sequentibus habeas, ut me, cum 

 otium nactus fueris, certiorem per litteras facias: TsvS-^^v 

 Aristotelis quid sit lubenter scirem ; et an in nostris regionibus 

 reperiatur? ~Bop,$ovft.ios vero an sit Humlen Germanorum intel- 

 ligerem? Hgeuroxovgis an sit species erucse, ut D. Gesnerus 

 arbitratur? Tgagff-XAjf an sit bestiola cauda bifurca, quern 

 Germani Orenmotel vocant, quamque ut arbitror, Hadr. Junius 

 in suo nomenclatore Fullonem Plinii non recte arbitratur. 

 Scias Auriculariam alas habere sub >cingulo absconditas, ac 

 al ; quando volare quod idem experientia didici. Arodit flores, 

 si quae alia, etc. Blattam fcetidam spero etiam reperisse, Sca- 

 raba j o pilulari similis est, sed corpore magis oblongo, nee tarn 

 crasso ; caudam habet mucronatam, vel ut Plinius loquitur, 

 ucutam. Nullas habet alas, tardigradum arninaicuiuni et valde 

 fyetens." 



