102 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Mr. Gregson' s collection of lepidoptera is very much the largest I have 

 had opportunity to examine, and is wonderfully rich in varieties. Mr. Greg- 

 son has studied the question of variation from a standpoint of his own. He 

 believes that variation .depends not so much upon latitude or altitude as upon 

 the food, but he is of opinion that the effect produced by the food depends 

 upon the geological formation from which the plant draws its nutriment. 

 Mr. Gregson himself, though over 70 years of age, is younger in appearance 

 than many a man of 50, and looks as though he had a good score of years 

 before him yet. He knows every insect in his cabinet without referring to 

 the label on the pin, and many an interesting story was told in connection 

 with one or other of the specimens. 



His series of some species fills an entire drawer, Caja for instance, of which 

 he has some wonderful forms, impossible to be described in words. Mr. 

 Capper, however, whose large and very complete collection I also had the 

 pleasure to examine, contains the grandest variety of this species I have yet 

 seen. With the exception of a black spot at the discoidal cell, this splendid 

 tiger is entirely cream-coloured. Of Grossulariata, Mr. Gregson has two 

 drawers containing many hundreds of specimens, and including nearly every 

 conceivable variation. But it is not of these variable species I desire to 

 speak, but rather of such as are generally constant to the type, and in which 

 well marked departures are of greater interest, though perhaps of less value 

 than these protean forms. To the Noctuee he appears to have given most 

 attention. He breeds nearly every year such species as Agrotis Ashworthii, 

 Dianthacia ccssia, Polia flavicincta, and Luperina Barrettii, of all of which 

 he has long rows. To many of his varieties he has given names, and if he 

 will excuse me saying so, he has got into a bad habit of using his variety 

 names in his notes for publication, as though they had been described and 

 named already. He has suggested a solution of the difficulty of naming a 

 variety that is not constant, by using the plural termination to the name, that 

 is perhaps as good a way of meeting the difficulty as any. In the following 

 notes therefore, when any of Mr. Gregson' s names are used, terminates in a 

 diphthong, it is to be understood that the variety itself varies, but is still 

 sufficiently distinct to be named. I cannot say I agreed with all his con- 

 clusions, nor does his theory as to variation depending upon the geological 

 formation on which the food plant had grown appear sound at first sight, but 

 I must acknowledge I have not studied the question. Mr. Gregson* s fine 

 and very variable series of Tceniocampa opima for instance, taken on the 

 Cheshire sand hills are variable enough without change either of food or 

 station, but do not differ materially except in extent with my own series, 

 which are partly bred from the egg and partly captured here. But if my 



