40 Beautiful Butterflies. 



Latin palpus, and it expresses the action of feeling 

 gently or timidly, just as the snail does, you know, 

 which draws in its horns directly they come in contact 

 with anything. The term also means to flutter, hence 

 you may hear a weak person say that his heart palpi- 

 tates, when he has used great exertion, or been over- 

 excited. Now, both these meanings will apply to the 

 palpi of the Butterfly, which sometimes has a quivering 

 or fluttering motion, and I have been thus particular in 

 explaining them, in order that you may see what great 

 significance there is in scientific terms generally. Igno- 

 rant people often wonder what use there can be in these 

 long names, but you here see that they have a use, and 

 you may also see how necessary to a right understand- 

 ing of them is a knowledge of the Greek and Latin 

 languages, on which they are chiefly founded. These 

 languages may be considered as the keys to all the 

 sciences — by all means try and obtain possession of 

 these keys, for they will well repay you for years of 

 study; with them to guide you, and the habits of ob- 

 servation and method, and analysis, which their very 

 acquisition will induce, much that now seems difficult 

 and strange will be clear and simple, and full of order. 

 Now let us go back to the palpi, it would be palpa if 

 only one, but that there are two is quite palpable, that 

 is, plain — they can be seen and felt, and those who have 

 examined them through a microscope, tell us that they 



