What numbers vie in beauty with the charming offspring 

 of Flora ! Some in the delicacy and variety of their 

 colours ; colours not like those of flowers evanescent and 

 fugitive, but fixed and durable, surviving their subject, 

 and adorning it as much after death as they did when it was 

 alive. Some, again, in the veining and texture of their 

 wings, and others in the cottony down that clothes them ; 

 and the rich robes of others decked with the most vivid 

 tints of the heavenly bow, with the metallic lustre of gold 

 and silver, or reflecting the brilliance of precious stones. 



" Their win^s with azure, green and purjjle gloss'd. 

 Studded with colour'd eyes, with gems embo.ss'd. 

 Inlaid with pearl, and mark'd witli various stains 

 Of lively crimson through their dusky veins." 



OAHBAULD. 



The splendid appearance of the plumage of tropical 

 birds, is not superior to what the curious observer may 

 discover in a variety of Lepidoplera; and those many, 

 coloured eyes, which deck so gorgeously the peacock's tail, 

 are imitated with success in Vanessa lo, one of our most 

 common Butterflies.* 



" See," exclaims the illustrious Linna;us, " the large 

 elegant painted wings of the Butterfly, four in number, 

 covered with small imbricated scales ; with these it sustains 



• Introduction to P.ntoninlogy, v<»l. i, p. 7,-10. 



