86 REV. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L,S8., 
in their direction they point heavenwards, and in their colour 
reflect the sky’s own tint, teaching what we might be, a little 
bit of heaven’s blue in the midst of senseless clods, and 
springing out of the prevailing decay ? 
In reviewing the butterflies, the Morphide of South 
America pre-eminently suggest themselves to all our minds, 
Morpho, a Greek word denoting form or beauty, was a 
Spartan title for Venus, and certainly the tribe of insects 
thus named, large in size, conspicuous in beauty, and 
numerous in the number of its species, fully deserves the 
appellation it has received. The title Morphide is regarded 
as including the whole tribe comprehending some fine genera, 
as Pavonia, Caligo, &c., that are not in many instances of a 
brilliant blue, but dusky. The word Morpho is reserved for 
such as are of a uniform azure or pearly tint, and nothing can 
exceed the beauty of many of those denizens of the Western 
tropics. Blue, unlike red, in many of these species, constitutes 
the ground and only colour. In the case of other kinds broad 
blue bands intersect a black or dark brown surface. Mor- 
phide are decidedly the largest in size of all the tribes of 
butterflies known in the Western hemisphere, several of the 
species equalling in stretch of wing any that occur in the 
Eastern also. ‘he range of most of the kinds is confined to 
South America, but few extend as far north as, and a few 
more are peculiar to, Central America and Mexico. The 
beauty of many of the kinds, and the minute differences, 
variations, and gradations of tint are indescribable, and can 
only be realised by close inspection, some recalling moonlight 
in water, others an opal-like radiance or mother-of-pearl 
suffused with mauve, or a blue unsurpassed in lustre by any 
created object, unless it be the breast of another inhabitant of 
the same region, I mean a tropical humming-bird. 
Several species of our own, and the Continental, African, 
and East Indian Lyczenide, small and insignificant in appear- 
ance as they are in comparison with the Morpho, are, neverthe- 
less, wholly blue, some brighter, some duller, some dark, some 
purplish, and others again silvery. It may be remarked that 
a yellow flower, when dried, preserves its colour much better 
than a blue one. ‘Take the Centaurea cyanus (corn blue- 
bottle) as an instance. For the first five or six days it will 
appear to keep almost its original tint, and then suddenly it 
will turn completely white. Among butterflies the contrary 
holds good. Place a blue Morpho, and a yellow or orange 
Callidryas in a glazed case in a shop-window, and the blue 
will retain its hue for a long period after the other insect has 
