1 882.] Editors' Table. 123 



rise to the apparition of two or three successive broods in the 

 course of the year. He regarded these series as distinct from 

 each other as any two species, and offering differences such as 

 usually characterize somewhat distinct genera. 



All this was based upon what the author stated to be a fact, 

 that the eggs of these species are wholly undeveloped at the 

 birth of the female, and that they are not developed for weeks or 

 months, so that what appears to be two successive broods of the 

 butterflies cannot possibly be such, as one cannot be descended from 

 the other. Any one, in fact, must have come direct from the sec- 

 ond brood back of it and not the first. 



Mr. Edwards ascertained in 1875, 'y6, and 'yj; by breeding A. 

 myrina in the Catskill mountains (in part, bringing the eggs or 

 caterpillars to Coalburgh, W. Va.) that the foregoing statement was 

 based in error. That the females at birth have fully developed eggs, 

 requiring but impregnation, and that they are laid almost imme- 

 diately ; in fact, two of his butterflies paired a few hours after both 

 emerged from the chrysalis. Eggs were laid to the number of 

 ninety-three, within forty-eight hours from chrysalis, and they pro- 

 duced caterpillars. Also that other points in Mr. Scudder's curious 

 history were made in error; and his observations were published 

 in the Canadian Entomologist. Nevertheless, in his work on Butter- 

 flies, Mr. Scudder repeats the same story, with no verification or data 

 whatever, and with no direct allusion to the published refutation. 



Mr. Edwards stated that Thccla henrici Grote, lays its eggs on 

 the wild plum at the base of the plum stalks; the young larva? 

 climb the stalks and eat a hole in the side of the small plum, and 

 thereafter continued to feed on the inner part of the plum, going 

 to another when the first is excavated. The species is single- 

 brooded, appearing in April, about the time the wild plum trees 

 are coming into bloom (in West Virginia). 



EDITORS' TABLE. 



EDITORS : A. S. PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE. 



The popular view as to the definition of science, if we are 



to judge from the subject matter of "scientific columns" in our 

 newspapers and magazines, is somewhat wide of the mark. It is 

 evidently not well understood that the application of science to 

 Practical life is not science itself, and should be treated of under a 



