Insects. 4647 



you forced the dead languages upon them it would be worse still. 

 I was lately visiting the stove-houses of a nobleman who has one of 

 the best collections of exotic orchids and ferns in this country, and 

 whose gardener is most scientific and successful in their cultivation ; 

 but the poor man was terribly put to it with the labels, and had too 

 often joined masculine and feminine, with a more correct idea of 

 connubial than of grammatical harmony ! 



The greatest difficulty will hereafter arise in the way of forming 

 correct lists of truly British insects, from the quantity of bought 

 specimens and collections, which Mr, Scott so justly decries. Kirby 

 says, " I have seldom seen a cabinet so meagre as not to possess some 

 unique specimen." Now, alas ! if one substituted the word "bought" 

 for " unique," it would be nearer the truth. This evil should be taken 

 in time, and might be counteracted by every bon&Jide collector, who 

 wishes that science should benefit by his labours, keeping a careful 

 catalogue containing the history of how each scarce insect came into 

 his possession ; and properly not a single specimen bought from a 

 dealer should be admitted without some mark being adopted to note 

 its antecedents. 



The importance and value, therefore, of "Local Lists" cannot, in 

 this respect, be overrated. But, at the same time, there is now a well- 

 founded and natural aversion to publishing the exact localities and 

 stations of rare things, from the unscrupulous way in which collectors, 

 amateur as well as professional, too often eradicate, as far as lies in 

 their power, any rare object. What writes a friend, a prominent 

 entomologist, to me on my telling him of the discovery of a scarce 

 insect? "Be sure you don't say anything about the locality to any 

 one." One of the most distinguished botanists in England, on hearing 

 of my finding a rare plant, writes, " I trust you will be very careful not 

 to risk the extirpation of so truly interesting a species by making its 

 station known to any of our collecting societies or their agents, or to 

 any collector of plants for sale." Botany is more exposed than her 

 sister sciences to this danger; and this has been the reason why com- 

 munications to the ' Phytologist' were so much less numerous than 

 those to the ' Zoologist ;' not because Botany is less studied at present 

 in Britain than Zoology, or that there is little left to discover and 

 record, for one's own experience and that of one's friends convinces 

 one of the contrary, but that when one finds new stations for rare 

 plants, or good botanical localities, one is shy of publishing them ; as, 

 the more choice the plants, the more certain it is that the ruthless 

 hand of some "eradicator of rare plants" will visit the spot, and carry 



