314 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



And again (June 26, 1878) : — 



" This purchase of a cocoon or two of SaturniadcB has 

 "grown into a much greater enterprise than I antici- 

 "pated. I am at last gratifying the desire of more than 

 "five and forty years, namely, the rearing of some of 

 " the very elite of the Lepidoptej'a. Yesterday I had the 

 " beautiful male Purple Emperor evolved from a chrysalis, 

 "reared from the caterpillar. Another will probably be 

 "out to-night, a distinct species, closely allied. I have 

 " now around me the larvcs^ attaining vast size and great 

 " beauty, of many of the very principes of the moths ; 

 "and several I have evolved from cocoon. One of the 

 "very finest I ever saw was produced in great perfection 

 " a few days ago ; I inclose you an accurately measured 

 "paper-cutting of it. It is of exquisite delicacy; the 

 "wings of the tenderest pea-green, merging into snow- 

 " white at the body, and the front edge chocolate-purple. 

 " It is the noble Tropcea selene of the Himalayan slopes. 

 " These are samples which ought to make your mouth 

 "water, if you retain any of your boyish enthusiasm." 

 And again (April 7, 1879) : — 



" If you are still entomologist enough to know the 

 "splendid Morphos, most lustrous, dazzling blue, great 

 "butterflies of South America, you will like to know 

 " that I have recently been accumulating a fine collection 

 " of these and other tropical Lepidoptera ; including the 

 " great OrnitJioptercB of Malasia, a large number of fine 

 ^' Papiliones, and half a dozen species or more of the 

 " noblest of these Morphos, enough already nearly to 

 " fill a cabinet of twenty-four drawers. They afford me 

 "great delight, gratifying the yearnings of my earlier 

 " years, which I never expected to gratify." 

 During all this time, however, and in spite of all the 

 incentives to intellectual labour which his pursuits gave 



