398 Miscellaneous. 



parts of Europe, died at his estate Sparresdter, in Sweden, on the 

 28th March ult. in his 76th year. 



From a letter addressed by the Rev. Mr. Carlson, nephew of 

 M. Schonherr and Secretary to the Swedish Legation in London, to 

 J. "Walton, Esq., we learn the following particulars respecting his 

 decease : — He was " suddenly attacked by a fit of apoplexy on the 

 16th of last month (March) at eight o'clock in the evening, when he 

 fell down on the threshold of his outer room just as he was going 

 downstairs to join the family. The physicians did all they could to 

 avert the danger and he got a little better, but there was scarcely 

 any hope, and I have this day received the melancholy intelligence 

 of his death on the 28th ult. at half-past seven o'clock in the morning. 

 This unexpected loss of my dear and venerable relative has filled my 

 heart with sadness, and I am sure you will feel with me, as you were 

 a very dear friend of my late uncle." 



It is impossible to speak in too high terms of the entomological 

 productions of the deceased author. Instead of dissipating his talents 

 by devoting them to a variety of subjects, he steadily kept in view 

 one great object, namely the elaboration of the synonymy of the 

 order of Coleoptera. His great work — (for in fact all his publica- 

 tions form but one whole) — the ' Synonymia Insectorum,' — was com- 

 menced in 1806. Three volumes successively appeared, in which 

 the original plan was retained, namely that of giving a synonymical 

 list of every known beetle with reference to every work in which it 

 had been described, with the occasional addition of such species as 

 had come to the knowledge of the author ; these at first were but 

 few in number. The ' Systema Eleutheratorum ' of Fabricius had 

 appeared a few years previously, and that author by his continual 

 travels had made himself acquainted with the contents of the ento- 

 mological cabinets of England, France and Germany. Moreover at 

 that time the world was otherwise occupied than in collecting in- 

 sects. The third volume appeared in 1817, but now time and the 

 change of affairs had brought a great influx of novelties from distant 

 regions, and an Appendix of new species appeared in a separate 

 volume at the same time as the third volume. 



The three volumes and appendix thus far published completed the 

 Coleoptera as arranged in the ' Systema Eleutheratorum ' of Fabri- 

 cius, so far as page 376 of the second volume of that work, leaving 

 the Rhynchophorous, Xylophagous and Brachelytrous Coleoptera un- 

 touched. The attention of Schonherr was accordingly next applied 

 to the first of these groups answering to the Linnaean genus Curculio, 

 but here the vast number of species and the modifications which had 

 been introduced by Latreille and Dejean rendered another plan of 

 proceeding necessary ; the result of which was the publication of 

 the ' Curculionidum dispositio methodica, seu Prodromus ad syno- 

 nymise Insectorum partem quartam,' 8vo, Leipsic, 1826. This was 

 succeeded in 1833 by the commencement of the herculean task of 

 arranging the synonymy and describing the species of Rhynchopho- 

 rous beetles, the extent and labour of which may be easily under- 

 stood when it is stated that it has required eight thick 8vo volumes 

 (containing more than 7000 pages) to^ complete the work, the last 



