22 FEBRUARY. 



teachable spirit be sedulously cultivated; and, if a 

 younger entomologist should require information at your 

 hands, do not refuse it, but recall to your mind the time 

 when you were " among the pots/' and were craving 

 for information of the same kind ; and remember also, 

 that "he that watereth shall be watered/' 



Now with respect to entomological books, these are 

 of two kinds good, and good for nothing; those 

 written to instruct, by men well conversant with the 

 subject they treat of, having acquired their knowledge 

 by a long course of study, not only in the library, but 

 practically in the woods and fields from actual ob- 

 servation; and those written by fireside naturalists, 

 whose writings smell more strongly of tea and toast than 

 of the morning air meditations began and finished by 

 the parlour fire while the authors " babble of green 

 fields and smiling hedgerows.'' These are the blind 

 guides ; the men who make sweeping assertions with- 

 out a particle of foundation for them. The following 

 extract, bearing directly upon the subject in hand, 

 will illustrate my meaning; it is from an article on 

 " Mosses and their Allies," inserted in the " Illus- 

 trated Magazine of Art" (vol. i. N. 8. p. 183). It 

 may be taken in exception, that this is not a strictly 

 Natural History publication, but I would answer that 

 it is a strictly educational one, and, therefore, that accu- 

 racy in its statements should be a prominent and leading 

 feature. The author states that, " Lovely as is this tribe 

 of plants (Mosses), we cannot give a good report of 

 them as ministering directly to tke Jife of any part of 

 the animal creation. They do not furnish nectar for 



