the large and small Cabbage Butterflies. 243 
interesting Ldlustrations of Entomology, now in the course of 
publication. It yet remains to be seen, however, w hether, in 
the judgment of entomologists 1 in general, these Early Whites 
(as they are termed) will eventually maintain their place as 
genuine and distinct species; and it is under the hope that 
some accurate observer may be induced to institute experi- 
ments with a view to set the question at rest, that I call your 
attention to the subject. For myself, I may say that I have 
not been unobservant of these insects for some years past, but 
have more particularly attended to them during the spring and 
summer of the present year ; and, as far as my observations 
go, they lead me to the ccnehisian that P. Charicléa and Métra 
are mere varieties respectively of P. brassicae and rape. P. 
rapee is avowedly a very variable insect, and being too, as well as 
P. brassicae, a most abundant species, there is consequently the 
more e scope — there are so many more chances —for variation 
to take place in the indiv iduals. It must be admitted, indeed, 
that when a small and perfectly immaculate specimen of P. 
Métra is compared with a full- sized and strongly marked one 
of P, rape, the prima, facie difference is so wide, that any one 
would at once pronounce them distinct. But then, on the 
other hand, we find that intermediate specimens occur, which, 
presenting every possible shade and gradation of dy nents 
appear naturally to connect and identify the two extremes ; 
and it would be next to impossible to decide, in many instances, 
to which of the two these intermediate links should with 
most propriety be referred. ‘The same observations apply 
also to the kindred species P. napi, the earliest spring speci- 
mens of which are smaller than those of the summer brood, 
paler in their markings above, and sometimes almost entir ely 
destitute of them ; and this species too, like P. brassicae and 
rapzx, is subject to endless variations. In the spring of the 
present year I took many specimens of the pale varieties of all 
three species (one of P. rape so early as * March 18.), but 
I could not observe that any of the paler specimens of either 
kind occurred in the summer brood. In anote at the end of 
the volume, Mr. Stephens states his opinion, that P. Charicléa 
and P. Metra are neither of them double-brooded, as he once 
supposed ; and hence, perhaps, he would draw an additional 
argument in proof of their being distinct from P. brassicae and 
* This is the only instance I ever knew of any Papilio coming forth from 
the chrysalis so early in the spring ; for although Vanéssa To, Polychloros, 
urtice, and C. album, and Gonépteryx rhdmni are often to be seen on the 
wing earlier in the month, and some of them occasionally in February or 
even January, these vernal specimens, it must be remembered, are such as 
have been produced i in the preceding autumn, and have secreted themselves 
during the winter in the winged state. 
