DRAGON-FLIES, ETC. 207 



"Metamorphoses et Historia Naturalis Insectorum," 

 and the account of the preparations pursued for 

 watching the progress of each expected metamor- 

 phosis he termed " experiments," and so indeed they 

 were to him, as he had no previous grounds for 

 knowing the results which might he disclosed to 

 his persevering observations, His preparations for 

 watching the progress of the larva of the Dragon- 

 fly rank as his "Experimentum decimum-septimum" 

 (his seventeenth experiment), and it was doubtless 

 one of those which proved to him the most interest- 

 ing and astonishing. We may imagine the en- 

 thusiastic naturalist, on the day when he first 

 captured the Dragon-fly larva, as he went forth into 

 the fields, seeking the borders of clear brooks and 

 ponds, and admiring with curious and eager eye the 

 singular forms which he saw dimly flitting beneath 

 the veil of water ; and his triumph at successfully 

 dredging up some of the curious creatures so eagerly 

 sought, such as Nos. 1 and 3 in Plate VI., just 

 in the way that a modern student, wishing to fill 

 his modern Vivarium, must go about collecting a 

 similar harvest. We may imagine the new trea- 

 sures of old Gcedart carried home in triumph 

 and placed carefully in some glass vessel, the better 

 to observe the habits and expected changes of 



