Xll PLAN OF THE WORK. 



In the three little volumes, published in the Li- 

 brary of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled INSECT 

 ARCHITECTURE, INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, and 

 INSECT MISCELLANIES, I have introduced some of 

 the most interesting details and discussions re- 

 specting Insects ; but the plan of these works pre- 

 cluded my going into a regular elementary enu- 

 meration of parts and functions such as I have 

 here given, and which may accordingly be consi- 

 dered introductory to these three volumes. 



The general rule of style which I always adopt, 

 is never to use a word derived from the Latin or 

 Greek when I can readily find one of Saxon origin, 

 not that it is possible to discard those derivative 

 words altogether the English language would be 

 meagre indeed without such as have long been 

 naturalized and are well understood ; but as they 

 are not the basis of our language, we ought, I 

 think, to try to keep up our native words, and not 

 hunt after foreign terms which we do not indis- 

 pensably want. " Spotless," for example, I should 

 generally prefer to immaculate ; "across/' for trans- 

 versely ; u horny," for corneous; " forked/' for fur- 

 cate; and so on. Of all vulgarities, pedantic 

 vulgarity is the most offensive. 



In giving names to things not previously named, 

 the Greek language, from its facilities in com- 

 pounding words, is usually resorted to, but this, 

 I think, is in many cases done without necessity, 

 as English, though not so easily compounded, may 



