260 



THE AMERICAN 



of an average insect in its four stages in anything 

 like a da}''s time. Indeed, in most cases, it takes 

 much longer to make a good figure than to write 

 out a good description, and, in our estimation, 

 the person who makes a good and diagnostic 

 figure of any of tlie transient pre])aratory states 

 of an insect, is entitled to fully as much credit 

 as tlie one who Avrites out the description ; and 

 we have always felt inclined to give Wcstwood 

 as nnirli credit for his excellent out-line Mock- 

 illii>n-M(i(.ii~. .'IS for the still more excellent text 

 ill lii> liil,;Hli,,ilon. But let us put the time 

 n'i|tiirc(i \\,v lliis purpose at one day. wJiicli 

 )iirtkcs til,. I ill,,. (Icvcilrd to the drawings cxm.'IIv 

 ci|iial (<i llic linir (li'\(,(c(l to the manusi-ripl of 

 oiirprop(»c(l I'o.k,.) Edition of the little World 

 of Insects. Then it follows, on the assumption 

 lliiit we have to add another 1,(566 years to the 

 1 ,066 years already taken into account ; which 

 makes the sum total 3,332 years. Now, it is 

 notorious that naturalists — being as a rule usu- 

 ally moral and regular in their habits — live to 

 a good old age, and we will make for them the 

 liberal estimate of an average life of 80 years ; 

 but on the other hand, artists are generally loose 

 in their mode of life, and we cannot, with the 

 statistics before us, grant them a longer average 

 term than 60 years. Consequently, the average 

 life of the two classes of persons required, in 

 equal numbers, for our Cabinet Encyclopcedia 

 will be only 6.5 years; and allowiiii; l'.". yi'ars lor 

 the education of each indi\i(lnal iialiii-:ili>l and 

 artist, there will remain a clear axailalilc a\ ci aye 

 surplus of 40 years as the average working lite 

 of each class. Let us now divide the sum total 

 ofS.o.')!' years by 40, which represents in years 

 the working life of each of our workmen, and 

 we arrive at the astounding conclusion that it 

 will require the entire working life of 83 persons 

 to execute the manuscript and the drawings for 

 the little work which the eye of Mr. Lintner 

 has pictured to himself as likely to exist, perhaps 

 before he himself sinks into the grave! 



3rd. The cost of printing, in the style of the 

 Ajiekican Entomologist, 1o,(H)0 copies of an 

 octavo volume of 625 pages, including type- 

 setting, proof-reading, press-work and paper, 

 but charging nothing for any wood-cut illustra- 

 tions, would foot up about Sl,00o; and as we 

 wish to be liberal, we will charge nothing for the 

 binding. The cost of the 125 pages of colored 

 illustrations, including the pay of the artists 

 who execute the drawings, would range from 

 81 ■-'•"'.III HI u|i\vav(ls into the clouds, according to 

 the -ixleoi ^^,,v\<. required. This gives a total 

 ol'at least * I L'l'i.di id for each octavo volume ; and 

 as there arc to be l.ooo such volumes, we shall 



require for the practical carrying out of Mr. 

 Lintner's poetical conceptions, the snug little 

 sum of very nearly one hundred and twenty- 

 six MILLION DOLLARS. The statistical reader 

 will no doubt have noticed long before this, that 

 we allow no pecuniary pay ■\\hatcver to (he 

 naturalists who execute the manuscript of our 

 imaginary work. We could not in conscience 

 do so ; for we believe there are scores of ento- 

 mologists anxiously knocking every day at the 

 doors of our Scientific Academics and Associa- 

 tions with manuscripts in hand containing de- 

 sci-iptions of their new species; and these MSS. 

 are most distinterestedly ofiered for publication 

 ill I he iiiiutcd Transactions of such societies, 

 their authors never dreaming of receiving the 

 least pecuniary compensation for all the labor 

 and trouble they have been at in preparing their 

 papers for the press. 



The question is perpetually put to us, " Why 

 is there no work on the Entomology of the 

 United States, which will enable us to identify 

 and name any particular insect of the country 

 with as much ease as the Botanical student can 

 identify and name any partic'ular one of our 

 plants, by referring to Gray's Manual of Bo- 

 tany?'' To such questions as these we beg leave 

 to reply as follows : In the first 2)luce, it is not 

 true that Gray's Manual covers the flora of the 

 whole Union ; for it professedly only comprises 

 tliat of a region which forms less than one-eighth 

 part of the territory now owned by Uncle Sam. 

 In the second place, even in this very limited 

 legion, it entirely omits the most difficult and 

 perliaps I lie most interesting jiart of the flora, 

 that is the Mosses and Lichens, the Funguses 

 and the Seaweeds (Ah/m) ; and even with such 

 other families of the Cryptogamous or Flower- 

 less plants as are treated of therein, namely, the 

 Horsetails, the Ferns, the Club-mosses, and the 

 AVater-ferns or Hydroptevides, the space allotted 

 to these groups is scarcely one-thirtieth part of 

 the space allotted to the Phanerogamous or 

 Flowering plants. For any one, thercfoiv, to 

 consider Gray's Manual — and we fully acknowl- 

 edge the unrivalled excellence of this work, so 

 far as it goes — as a complete Flora of the whole 

 United States, would be pretty much like claim- 

 ing that the works of Dr. J. L. LeConte, on the 

 one single Order of Insects out of the wliole 

 eight Onlei-s. iiaiuely. llie r.eellesor Coleoiitera, 

 areeiiiii\aleiil lo a r,,iiii,leie Knl,.iii.,!.,oieal Fauna 

 of all the Ilise.-ls fouilil ill the I'Ulire liiion. In 

 the third place, it is generally estimated that the 

 inunber of insects exceeds at least four or five- 

 fold that of plants to be found in any particular 

 region. Calculating upon several distinct bases 



