24 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



much complexity of structure as the whole wing does 

 to the unassisted vision. 



A few of the highly varied forms they present are 

 shown on Plate II. Figs. 23 to 38 are selected from 

 among the commoner forms, as seen by a comparatively 

 low power. The small stalk-like appendage is the 

 part by which the scale is affixed to the wing : it may 

 be called the root. Figs. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, show some 

 very remarkable forms, which are, so far as has been 

 ascertained, peculiar to butterflies of the male sex, 

 though the use or reason of this masculine badge, only 

 visible to highly magnifying optics, is neither known 

 nor probably to be known at present ; but singularly 

 beautiful and curious they are to look at. The little 

 balls at the end of threads are the root portion, and fit 

 into cup-like sockets, placed here and there among the 

 ordinary scales. The surface of these scales is beauti- 

 fully ribbed and cross-ribbed, and at the upper end is 

 a plume-like tuft of delicate filaments. The curious 

 scale aptly called, from its shape, the Battledore scale, 

 and shown at fig. 22, also belongs to the male of 

 various butterflies, especially those pretty little ones 

 known as the " Blues." Its surface is most curiously 

 ornamented with rows of bead-like prominences. 



Probably one would imagine that in such wee specks 

 as are these scales, one single layer of substance would 

 suffice for their whole thickness (if we can talk of thick- 

 ness, with objects almost immeasurable in their thin- 

 ness). But such is not the case, for when scales have 



