334 APPENDICES 



conception, and he is responsible for its plan down to the 

 smallest detail. It is unquestionably the foremost organisation 

 of its kind at present in existence." Again he writes : " Professor 

 Riley's work in the organisation of the Division of Entomology 

 has unquestionably advanced the entire Department of which it 

 is a part, for it is generally conceded that this Division has led 

 in most matters where efficiency, discipline, and system were 

 needed." 



4 His Division published the rirst bulletin, and in " Insect Life " 

 began the system of periodical bulletins, which has since been 

 adopted for the other Divisions of the Agricultural Department. 

 In an address, says Howard, before the National Agricultural 

 Congress, delivered in 1879, m which he outlined the ideal 

 Department of Agriculture, Professor Riley foreshadowed many 

 important reforms which have since become accomplished facts, 

 and suggested the important legislation, since brought about, of 

 the establishment of State Experiment Stations under the general 

 government. 



< His practical, inventive genius was exhibited in his various 

 means of exterminating locusts, in the use of kerosene oil emul- 

 sified with milk or soap, and in his invention and perfection of 

 the " cyclone " or " eddy-chamber " or Riley systems of nozzles, 

 which, in one form or another, are now in general use in the 

 spraying of insecticide or fungicide liquids. 



1 Although the idea of introducing foreign insect parasites or 

 carnivorous enemies of our imported pests had been suggested 

 by others, Riley, with the resources of his division at hand, 

 accomplished more than any one else in making it a success. 

 He it was who succeeded in introducing the Australian ladybird 

 to fight the fluted scale. 



i Riley's scientific writings will always stand, and show as 

 honest work. He was not u a species man" or systematist as 

 such ; on the contrary, his most important work was on the 

 transformations and habits of insects, such as those of the 

 lepidoptera, locusts and their parasites, his Missouri reports 

 being packed with facts new to science. His studies on the 

 systematic relations of Platypsyllus as determined by the larva 

 evince his patience, accuracy, and keenness in observation and 

 his philosophic breadth. 



* His best anatomical and morphological work is displayed in 

 his study on the mode of pupation of butterflies, the research 

 being a difficult one, and especially related to the origin of the 

 cremaster, and of the vestigial structures, sexual and others, of 

 the end of the pupa. Whatever he did in entomology was 

 original. He was also much interested in Aeronautics, and took 

 much delight in attending seances of spiritualists and exposing 

 their frauds, in one case, at least, where another biologist of world- 

 wide fame, then visiting in Washington, was completely deluded. 



