Beautiful Butterflies. 105 



GREASY FRITILLARY. 



PLATE VI. FIG. I. 



\APILIO, or Melitcea artemis. The Fritillaries, 

 although by no means the gayest in colour, 

 are among the most beautifully marked of our 

 native Butterflies; there are as many as twelve different 

 species of them, five or six of which only bear the 

 generic name Melitcea, derived, it may be, from the 

 Latin Milites, a precious stone, of an orange colour — 

 that tint prevailing more or less in all Butterflies 

 belonging to this genus. Artemis occurs in the my- 

 thology as the name of a Greek goddess. Artemesia 

 is found in ancient history several times ; it is also the 

 name of an extensive genus of plants, mostly remark- 

 able for their bitterness, such as wormwood and 

 southernwood, none of which, however, appear to be 

 the common food of the Caterpillars of these elegant 

 flies i that of the Greasy ^ or, as it is sometimes called, 

 the Marsh Eritillary, feeding on the plantain and the 

 scabious. The first of these names is derived from the 

 peculiar shining appearance of the under side of the 



