30 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



And, finally, it may not be amiss to briefly describe Professor 

 Smith's method of working. Sunday was the day of all others 

 that was usually selected for the purpose of determining speci- 

 mens that were received during the week, to describe new species 

 and to do whatever else required the consultation of the entire 

 collection. 



In the years that I spent at the Experiment Station the collec- 

 tion was kept in a small basement room in the fire-proof college 

 library, and here it was that I frequently spent the Sunday with 

 him, working on the Hulst collection of Geometridae. This was 

 the one day of the seven in the week when Professor Smith found- 

 time to discuss things lepidopterological, and in this room I 

 learned much concerning questions of nomenclature, and of old 

 entomologists who left this world before I stepped into the field 

 of entomology. 



In naming specimens for collectors Professor Smith always 

 preferred to place the name on the pin because, as he said, there 

 was then less danger of confusion. If any doubt arose concern- 

 ing the identification of a specimen recourse to the collection was 

 immediately made and usually an instant was sufficient to draw 

 a conclusion. If perchance it would turn out to be new only a 

 few minutes more were required to write a description. All types 

 were labelled so at once, not only with the designation " type " or 

 " cotype," but in all cases with the name of the insect as well,, 

 so that no question would ever arise as to just what a given speci- 

 men was type of. Thus the future student of Professor Smith's 

 collection, though he may find many of the drawers well crowded, 

 will not be likely to draw the involuntary sigh one usually gives 

 on seeing a type collection with merely the word type on the 

 specimens or even only a type label below a series of specimens. 

 Professor Smith was always careful as to these details and never 

 attempted to gain time by shirking work of this kind. 



His monographic papers, on the other hand, were not written: 

 in the library. The specimens comprising the group to be revised 

 were brought over to the laboratory and were separated according; 



