78 BIOGRAPHICAL [CHAP. xi. 



own words addressed to us in the course of a long and 

 intimate correspondence. 



" I will now try and think of something you may care to 

 insert about languages. So far as I can avoid it, I try not to 

 write in any language but my own, but I can read serviceably 

 French, Italian, and Spanish, and also Latin for what I need ; 

 likewise, of course, German ; Russian I could read once but 

 not so readily now ; and with the dictionary I can make 

 something of Dutch and Norwegian." 



" Of my very special colleagues who are now gone from 

 us, were Professor Westwood, Life President of the Entomolo- 

 gical Society, and Dr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of the Board 

 of Agriculture of the U.S.A. ; and Professor Huxley, in days 

 when I sat on the Council of Education Committee of 

 Economic Entomology, was a valued friend. It was marvel- 

 lous to see how Huxley with his towering personality led a 

 committee. On one occasion he asked if any one present 

 would express an opinion on the subject under consideration, 

 and he rather suddenly directed his attention to a certain 

 member of committee, who was so startled he nearly got 

 frightened out of his life." 1 



" The regular course of my work brings me into such con- 

 stantly recurring communication with the Entomological 

 Departments of our own Colonies, also of many of the 

 U.S.A. States, and various Continental Societies or 

 specialists, that I may venture to say that as occasion occurs 

 we interchange I mean the heads of the Departments and 

 myself friendly observations, very beneficial and pleasant 

 to me. The plan of my work has long been to reply, if I 

 could do so soundly, to every enquiry on the day of receipt. 

 Often investigation is needed for scientific purposes, but a 

 large proportion of the enquiries may be answered at once 

 so far as the practical needs of the enquirers are concerned. 

 For further purposes my custom is to work up anything new 

 or involved that occurs, for use in the following Annual 

 Report. I do not devolve on my specialist referees the 

 researches (so far as I can ascertain the state of the case), 

 but they tell me if my identification is correct , or correct it 

 for me, and I quite invariably, if the matter be for publication, 

 publish also my acknowledgment. The correspondence 

 continues steadily all the year round, more of course 

 in the warm seasons of the year than at other times, but even 

 in winter it never ceases. My plan has generally been to 

 store up all the observations of the growing (and conse- 

 1 See "Letters from Huxley," pp. 85-87. 



