Beautiful Butterflies. 99 



one king, who had challenged another to fight, put his 

 opponent off his guard, and so killed him. One of the 

 names of Jupiter we learn was Apatenor — the de- 

 ceiver, and Apate is by one Greek author, applied to a 

 plant. What connection, real or supposed, there is 

 between all this and the generic name of our splendid 

 Emperor we cannot imagine. 



With the specific name Iris we have no such diffi- 

 culty. In the mythology the messenger of the gods 

 was called by this name, and the rainbow, more poeti- 

 cally than truthfully supposed to be her pathway from 

 the regions above to earth, was also so termed; hence 

 the word Iris came to signify that which was rich and 

 various in colour, especially such as shifted and changed 

 in different lights, or as we should say was iridescent. 

 The rich purple flag-flower we call an iris, and so do 

 naturalists term this glorious fly, whose dark wings 

 are so richly overspread with purple down, and which 

 is that well described by a British entomologist named 

 Haworth. 



"The Purple Emperor of the British oaks, is not 

 undeservedly the greatest favourite of our English 

 aureleans (Butterflies of which the chrysalis are marked 

 with gold). In his manners likewise, as well as in the 

 varying lustre of his purple plumes, he possesses the 

 strongest claims to their particular attention. In the 

 month of July, he wakes in the winged state, and 



