BUTTERFLY PAINTING. 17 



nameable red, whose velvet depth and softness contrast 

 deliciously with the adjacent flashing lustre; then comes 

 another field of velvet black, then more gold, and so on 

 till the gorgeous picture is complete. 



Subject a piece of finest human painting to the scru- 

 tiny of a strong magnifying glass, and where is the 

 beauty thereof 1 Far from being magnified, it will have 

 wholly vanished : its cleverest touches turned to coarse, 

 repulsive daubs and stains. 



NOMV, bring the microscope's most searching powers 

 to bear upon the painting of an insect's wing, and we 

 find only pictures within pictures as the powers in- 

 crease ; the very pigments used turn out to be jewels, 

 not rough uncut stones, but cut and graven gems, bedded 

 in softest velvet. 



If by gentle rubbing with the finger-tip the scales 

 be removed from both sides of the wing (for each side 

 is scale-covered, though generally with a very different 

 pattern), there remains a transparent membrane like 

 that of a bee's or fly's wing, tight stretched between 

 stiff branching veins, but bearing no vestige of its late 

 gay painting, thus showing that the whole of the colour- 

 ing resides in the scales, the places occupied by the 

 roots of the latter being marked by rows of dots. 



Hitherto we have been looking at these scales as the 

 component parts of a picture, like the tesserae of mosaic 

 work ; but they are no less interesting as individual 

 objects, when viewed microscopically. To do this, deli- 

 cately rub off a little of the dust or scales with the 

 finger ; then take a slip of glaSs, and pressing the 

 finger with the adhering dust upon it, the latter will 

 come off and remain on the glass, which is then to be 

 placed under the microscope. These scales may be 

 treated either as opaque or transparent objects, and in 

 both conditions display exceeding beauty, some of these 

 single atoms showing, by aid of the microscope, as 

 much complexity of structure as the whole wing does 

 to the unassisted vision. 



A few of the highly varied forms they present are 



