26 PRIZE ESSAY : 



puted that all the species of insects taken together, which exist 

 in nature do not fall short of 400,000. 



31. It is, however, probable, that there are more known species 

 of plants than insects, but the vegetable world has been far more 

 sedulously studied and ransacked than the apparently less strik- 

 ing and less important world of insects. A very large number 

 of plants have been collected in distant parts of the globe, with- 

 out the insects which live on them or near them being brought 

 at the same time. But if we limit, says Humboldt^ 1 ) the esti- 

 mates of numbers to a single part of the world, and that the one 

 which has been the best explored in respect to both plants and 

 insects, viz., Europe, we find a very different proportion, for 

 while we can hardly enumerate between seven and eight thous- 

 and European phcenogamous (flowering) plants, more than three 

 times that number of insects are already known. 



32. The relations of insects to man are not only remarkably 

 numerous but of the utmost importance, and with the exception 

 of the domesticated animals, they exceed those of all other classes 

 in this kingdom of nature. Nevertheless, we find that the study 

 of entomology is still in its infancy, and has neither progressed 

 so rapidly nor won so many admirers as her sister science botany, 

 or some of her kindred departments in zoology. 



33. From the time of Pliny to that of Linne in Sweden, 

 Reaumer in France, Sulzer in Germany, Ray, Kirby and Spence 

 in England, Say in America, entomologists have found the ne- 

 cessity of seizing every opportunity of showing that their favor- 

 ite science was not a frivolous amusement or devoid of utility, 

 as popular opinion seemed inclined to consider it. ( 2 ) Old im- 

 pressions, says Reaumeur, are with difficulty effaced. They are 



(1) Aspects of nature. 



(2) See introduction to Kirby and Spence's Entomology. 



