ENTOMOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



APRIL, 1836. 



Art. XXXVIII. — Travels throughNorth and South Carolina, 

 Georgia, East and West Florida, %c. By William Bar- 

 tram. Philadelphia: James and Johnson. 1791. Lon- 

 don: Johnson, 1792. 



That period in the life of a book at which it becomes secure 

 from the critic's pen has not, we believe, been accurately 

 defined : we think fifty years a good ripe age for a book of any 

 kind ; and, venerating age as we do, we should perhaps be 

 inclined to deal leniently with any work that approached that 

 period of its existence. We find also that it is not at all times 

 expedient to criticise too freely those who are still in the field, 

 and common honesty demands that we should not praise where 

 no praise is due. 



" Si malus est liber 

 Nequeo laudare et poscere." 



From honest William Bartram, " peace be with him !" we 

 fear no revenge ; of him we may speak as we please, and he 

 will not answer us ; but this will be no inducement for us to be 

 severe. We may just remark, that his entomological nomen- 

 clature is by no means unexceptionable, but we must in fairness 

 add, that he is generally careful to include it in parenthesis, as 

 though himself aware of its possible incorrectness. It is as a 

 lover of nature, as an observer and describer, that we admire 

 William Bartram, and we shall attempt to extract the essence 

 of those flowers of description which he has so liberally strewn 

 throughout his work. 



no. v. vol. in. 3 H 



