117 



miles off) has a more English facies than the average 

 of these. 



"Taken altogether, they are much darker than the common 

 English form. They are also more variable than an equal 

 number of English specimens would be, — variable in the 

 sense that there is not a central uniform mass with a few 

 outliers of more or less marked aberrations, but throughout 

 the greater part of the range of variation individuals are as 

 abundant of one form as of another. The range of variation 

 is also no doubt greater than in an equal number of English 

 specimens, but does not at all exceed or indeed equal that of 

 the English race of Urticce, if selection of extreme varieties 

 be made from a sufficient number of specimens ; but a similar 

 selection from Lapland specimens would, no doubt, afford a 

 wider range of varieties. 



" There are not only dark forms, but some really very pale 

 ones. The two black spots on the centre of the fore-wing 

 are always present ; but in several specimens they are very 

 small and pale, and in other specimens there is a distinct 

 tendency for the yellow patch of the inner margin and the 

 outer one of the costal margin to join as a fascia past these 

 spots, the ground colour also being pale. At the other 

 extreme a large proportion of the specimens have numerous 

 dark scales tending to join the second costal with the inner 

 blotch in a black fascia ; in a few this is nearly, but in none 

 quite complete. 



" The Argynnids shown belong to that section that we now 

 know as the genus Brcnthis. The specimens illustrate one 

 or two points that are probably more or less familiar to most 

 of us. Our British species euphrosyne and selene are fairly 

 representative species of the genus, which contains a number 

 of both palaearctic and nearctic forms. Of these a very 

 large proportion are on the upper side very similar to selene 

 and euphrosyne, so much so that if the various geographical 

 varieties and aberrations of selene, euphrosyne, dia, aphirapc, 

 and probably several other species were mixed together, it 

 would be almost impossible to separate them by their upper 

 surfaces, whilst the under surfaces are always very definite 

 and distinctive. Not that the under sides do not vary, 

 especially in the amount of silvery spotting, but that the 

 upper surfaces vary in precisely parallel manner in all the 

 species, so that varieties of one species are vastly more 

 different than are similar forms of two distinct species. 



" Looking at the matter from the point of view as to how 

 these facts bear on the question of the suitability of each 



