52 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



clearest friends taken from us. So suddenly, indeed, at times, that we cannot 

 help thinking of the wisdom of the thought, so well expressed by Shelley, in 

 his " Adonais " — 



" Great and mean 

 Meet massed in death, who lends what life must borrow. 

 As long as skies are blue, and fields are green, 

 Evening must usher night, night urge the morrow, 

 Month follow month with woe, and year wake year to sorrow." 



John Mackay. 



Glasgow. 



THE EDITOR'S CHAT WITH HIS YOUNG 

 FRIENDS. 



Ovss or Ova. 



There is no correction so often needed to be made in the manuscript that 

 comes through my hands, as to alter ova into ova. Indeed, the error is so 

 frequent, that my eyes become accustomed to the combination of the letters, 

 and I find myself occasionally passing it as correct. Whether it is wise or 

 not, that words from other languages, imported into our own, shall form their 

 plural as they did in their original, is a matter about which we have no con- 

 cern. It is the rule and we must conform to it. Young Naturalists are not 

 necessarily Latin scholars, and they seem to think that because larva and 

 pupa are singular, and larvae and pupa plural, that ova and ova must be 

 correct also. Will they pardon me if I tread on delicate ground, and remind 

 them that the Latin word for egg is ovum. Now there is one word in com- 

 mon use with the same termination, memorandum, and when the plural is 

 needed no one thinks of writing anything but memoranda. Entomologists 

 too, say desiderata always. The same mode of forming the plural then applies 

 to ovum, and we need hardly say now that ova is correct, not ova. 



Imago is another word often made plural by the English rule of adding es, 

 and we see imagoes frequently written and occasionally printed. But the 

 word is made plural by the Latin rule, not the English. Of course, these 

 remarks are only intended for the ignorant few, not the enlightened many, 

 and the latter class must not be offended and think they apply to them. 

 But to those who did not know before, I say, remember then — 

 Singular Ovum. Plural Ova. 



„ Larva. „ Larva. 



„ Pupa. „ Pupa. 



„ Imago. „ Imagines, 



