39 



tour round it gives but a very poor idea of its contents, and 

 although my reader may assure me he knows them sufficiently 

 well already, that assurance will by no means satisfy me that he 

 and I are at all agreed either as to what those contents may be, 

 or as to their relative situations. Before, however, I again set 

 in earnest to the task of pointing out relations and approaches, 

 I feel that some apology is due for attempting the restoration 

 of a beautiful and euphonious name to that grand group of Lepi- 

 doptera, to which it was originally assigned by the eminent 

 naturalist who was the first to define and name such groups.* 

 I am fully aware this is an attempt at innovation for which I 

 can never be forgiven by the scientific ; for the merit of the 

 present day seems to consist in the total neglect of grouping 

 and classifying, and in making a host of imaginary genera and 

 species, for the mere pleasure of overwhelming us with a " far- 

 rago " of barbarous and unutterable names, — a practice which 

 my unsophisticated and old-fashioned notions will never dwell on 

 with that deferential awe which such profound science has an 

 undoubted right to expect. 



Again, on the subjects of orders, a term I have already been 

 induced to use now and then, I am quite aware that I here am 

 guilty of another misdemeanour, and more especially as I call 

 them natural orders, meaning thereby orders among the contents 

 of which nature has established the similarity ; and to the forma- 

 tion of which " the cunningly devised fables " of man have con- 

 tributed but very little ; and meaning also that nature has 

 implanted in us all, more or less, the power of distinguishing 

 such orders by a mere glance, and without any reference to our 

 books. 



Furthermore, the naming of orders which I have been obliged 

 to mention by name, in the unscientific way which I have adopted, 

 merely making them plurals of established names, of large and 

 overgrown genera, I acknowledge to be a confession of ignorance 

 not usual in this our day, especially as these old genera have 

 almost in every instance the disadvantage of being euphonious, 

 easily pronounced, expressive, and universally understood ; and 



* Linnaeus. 



