INTRODUCTION. 67 



have perished from the severity of the climate, give 

 but little room to expect any duplicate will ever be 

 obtained during the present age; and the learned 

 quotations that have been taken from it by those 

 celebrated authors Linnaeus and Fabricius in all 

 their late editions, are incontestable proofs of the 

 high degrees of estimation they entertained of it." 

 The work, which embodied many of the rarities of 

 this collection, * derived its principal value from the 

 plates, which are greatly superior .to any thing of 

 the same kind that had previously appeared in this 

 country; the descriptions are of little value, and 

 intended, as Drury himself states, merely to assist 

 the reader in observing the figures ; but the locali- 

 ties are indicated with some care, and the trivial 

 names of Linnasus to a certain extent applied, being 

 the first attempt of the kind made in this country. 

 The original deficiencies of the text, however, are 

 now amply made up, and a high degree of value 

 imparted to the work, even in the present state of 

 the science, in a beautiful edition published three 

 years ago under the editorial superintendence of 

 Mr. "Westwood, who has added much additional 

 matter, and given, wherever practicable, an account 

 of the different states of the species, in which the 

 original work was wholly defective, not a single 

 lepidopterous larva being either figured or described. 

 This work, therefore, has on two separate occasions 

 been of important service to the history of the noc- 



* The collection was ultimately brought to the hammer and 

 dispersed (May 23, 1805), realising the sum of £614 8s. 6<L 



