Beautiful Butterflies. 39 



would signify tribes that have jaws, as much the 

 larger number of living creatures have. It was, per- 

 haps, not quite correct of me to say that the Butterfly 

 had no mouth, for there is a little cavity just below the 

 insertion of the trunk, which, although it hardly de- 

 serves the name of a mouth, and does not appear to be 

 used at all as yours and mine, or even that of the Cater- 

 pillar is, yet it must, I fancy, be so called. 



And we must now speak of the oral appendages, that 

 is, the parts which belong to the mouth. The word 

 comes from the Latin os or oris. Now, if you should 

 hear or read that a person has or intends to communi- 

 cate with another orally , you will understand that it 

 means by word of mouth — that is, by speech. This 

 little cavity that I spoke of is covered by a small trian- 

 gular plate, " which must be regarded," says an autho- 

 rity on these matters, " as the labium or under lip." 

 There is another Latin word for you to remember. 

 Those letters of the English alphabet, such as b, p, v, f, 

 m, which are pronounced chiefly by the lips, are called 

 labials, you know, or should know. You have, no 

 doubt, noticed two short points projecting from the 

 front of the head of a Butterfly — I do not mean the 

 horns, which are long, slender, and nobbed at the ends 

 —but I mean what are called the labial palpi. 



In describing the head of the Caterpillar, I spoke of 

 the palpi or feelers ; this latter term comes from the 



