98 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



it was to him almost sacred ground, as being the 

 haunt of this or that rare " Blue " or " Fritillary." 

 It well-nigh seemed as if all the country were 

 mapped out in his mind's eye, not so much by 

 counties, nor according to its physical peculiarities, 

 but rather as a large hunting-ground for his butter- 

 flies ; indeed, he says as much in his description of 

 the " Brimstone " butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni). 



" If," he observes, " the imagination chooses so to 

 please itself, it may look upon our own country as a 

 sort of epitome of the northern hemisphere of the 

 world, as to its natural productions, and thus we 

 shall find that on the south coast, from Torquay to 

 Hastings, are our tropics ; in the midland counties 

 our temperate zone ; in Scotland our Arctic regions ; 

 and John o' Groat's House will answer to the North 

 Pole. Correspondingly hereto are our butterflies 

 localised. Excepting in the case of some chance 

 wanderer, driven by we know not what storm or 

 tempest, or 'favouring gale,' the races are for the 

 most part distinct, and those which flourish in one 

 district would perish at once in the other, through 

 the difference of climate." 



For each and every species he had an intense 

 admiration, and with some of the brighter-hued or 

 more beautifully marked kinds it seemed, when 

 looking at them in his cabinet, as if the very light 

 was never strong enough to show off their glories. 



His own collections, to which he so frequently 

 makes reference, were admirably arranged. In this 

 respect at least, if not in extent, there were few, if 



