184 Mi see lla neous. 



Martyn's ' Psyche' By Oliver E. Janson, F.E.S. 



In the January number of the ' Annals ' Mr. Sherborn, in his 

 " Note on Thomas Martyn's ' Psyche,' 1797," states that Mr. Van 

 de Poll and Mr. Janson had not responded to his letters asking for 

 information respecting the copy of this exceedingly rare work that 

 was contained in my late father's library, and now in the possession 

 of Mr. Van de Poll. As regards myself, I certainly never received 

 any letter from him upon the subject, but believe he called at my 

 office during my absence and made some vague enquiry of one of 

 my assistants respecting the copy of the work, which had then 

 passed out of my possession and had been in Holland, with Mr. Vau 

 de Poll, for several years ; but as he left neither a name or address, 

 I was unable to communicate with him, and was under the impres- 

 sion that he intended to call again or write to me ; and had he done 

 so I should have been only too glad to avail myself of the oppor- 

 tunity of giving him any information I was able to, and also to 

 have allowed him to inspect the first two numbers of the work now 

 in my possession, the second of which he states in his " Note " he 

 has never seen, and wishes to hear about from anyone who may 

 possess it. These two parts of the work with the original text are 

 those he refers to under copy " No. 9," which he states were sold to 

 Messrs. Dulau in 1888 and " not traced since." As a matter of 

 fact they were purchased by me from Dr. A. G. Butler in March 

 1890 and bear his aiitograph. These parts are both in the original 

 wrappers, evidently as issued. No. 1 agrees with the collation 

 given b}' Mr. Sherborn and No. 2 consists of text sign. D, pp. 7 and 

 8 in English, and the same sign, and pp. repeated in French — page 7 

 in each case devoted to the description of " Papilio daphnis ? " and 

 page 8 to that of " Papilio cresphontinus," both species being figured 

 on the accompanying plates. 



The existence of the copy " No. 10 " of Mr. Sherborn's list has 

 probably arisen from some mistake, as Dr. Butler informs rae he has 

 no means of knowing what books Mr. Van de Poll possesses and 

 has no recollection of having mentioned such a copy ; it would 

 therefore appear that the copy of the second part in my possession 

 is the only one so far known to exist, and I shall be glad to allow 

 anyone free access to it who may wish to consult it. 



I entirely disagree with ^Ir. Sherborn in regarding the work as 

 a manuscript ; the first two numbers he must, at all events, admit 

 are a regularly published work, and as regards the remaining 

 twenty-eight plates, he admits they have been printed from engraved 

 copper-plates and that a certain number of copies were issued, so 

 that I cannot see why the mere fact of the names of the species 

 having been omitted in the printing and filled in afterwards by 

 hand should be sufficient grounds for regarding the whole as a 

 manuscript. Even if no further portion of text should come to 

 light, I believe it is generally held by naturalists that a good recog- 

 nizable figure is quite as efficient to carry publication of a species as 

 a printed description. 



Ilighgate, N. 

 Januaiy 8th, 1893. 



