208 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [10:6— Sept., 1914 



to violate truth or to give offense to the lover of nature, just as 

 bad combinations of color are avoided out of consideration for the 

 feelings of persons of artistic temperament. When a butterfly is 

 used on the four comers of a sofa pillow or when the dragonfly is 

 used in a flat design, curved lines may give place to straight lines 

 and comers, but we do not put three pairs of wings on the animals 

 instead of two. Though too often, do we find insects with legs not 

 merely indeterminate in number but variable as well. We find 

 butterflies used in designs for hat pins, barrettes, and brooches. 

 The writer calls to mind at a public address recently a handsomely 

 designed barrette in front of him that was really more pleasing than 

 the speaker. One element necessary to its utility was a certain 

 degree of strength. This was obtained by using each antenna to 

 connect one end of the central body to the fore wings. The same 

 idea was duplicated at the other end of the body. Utility fur- 

 nished some justification for the extra pair of appendages. Not so 

 in the case of a brooch recently seen. The tail antennae, possibly 

 they should charitably be called stylets or cerci, projected from the 

 posterior end of the monstrosity and coiled in a way that got on one 

 person's nerves at least. The above instances differ from examples 

 taken from school work in that the former are cases of designs really 

 applied and not merely make-believe "applied designs," that is, 

 applied to something nobody wants but merely made to accommo- 

 date a design that is supposed to minister to a real need. 



If one were to represent a dragon with a very long body, the 

 conventional shoulder wings would give only the idea of weakness. 

 We recognize the cause of the smile that the appearance of a 

 dachshund arouses. It does not seem properly buttressed so to 

 speak. We remedy the deficiency, in the case of the dragon design, 

 by adding wings. Incidentally I may say that we add them, 

 according to precedent in pairs and not tandem fashion; for we 

 do not know how the latter arrangement would work. A much 

 smaller number of persons than would notice faults in the case just 

 mentioned would also feel conscious, I fancy, of any incongruity if a 

 dragonfly design had but one pair of wings to the animal, no matter 

 how elongated the body and despite the fact that nature herself 

 provides two pairs. This lack of sensitiveness on the part of the 

 general public does not excuse us, however, in perpetrating an 

 untruth when no pressing need is to be served. 



