306 



THE YOUNG NATUKALlST. 



ROSACEA. 



Crataegus oxyacantha, L. 

 a oxyacantha, Jacq. 



Hedges Jj Thickets, chiefly in the South. 

 . Loc. 



Tem. I | Col. 



If something of the same sort were 

 adopted for labelling Entomological 

 Collections we believe it would be pro- 

 ductive of much benefit, and the same 

 information would be needed. If 

 neatly written they would look quite as 

 well as printed, and should be some- 

 thing like the following : — 



FAPJLLIONlDiE. 

 Papilio Maohaon, Linn. 

 Swallow Tail. Camb. Feus. 



Loc 



Coll. by... Date 



The English name should only be used 

 when it really is an English name in 

 ordinary use, not one of those names 

 made for books that pretend to teach 

 science made easy. When there are 

 named varieties of the species, another 

 line would be to add as in the second 

 botanical name given. 



We have spoken of species in which 

 there are well recognised varieties, but 

 we believe it will be found that many 

 vary considerably that are not generally 

 noted as doing so. Agrotis tritici, for 

 instance, is a very variable species 

 wherever it occurs, but besides the 

 ordinary differences in the markings, 

 we have noticed that south country 

 specimens are much greyer, and north 

 country specimens more of a pale 

 golden brown, in their light shades. 

 Space of course prevents us enumerat- 

 ing species that vary in different ways, 

 and one must be taken as a sample of 



many. But when species do not vary 

 locally, what an advantage to I now 

 that it is so. A series, all exactly 

 alike, but labelled with different 

 localities "from Lands End to John o' 

 Groats," would be more instructive 

 than the same series all from one place, 

 or more instructive even than the 

 same insects from the different localities 

 not labelled at all, or only with the 

 name of the species at the bottom. 



The subject of variety, its cause and 

 extent are little understood, though 

 in some cases, as that of GnopJtos ob- 

 scurata, its cause may be known, it is 

 certainly not so in the majority of 

 cases. We look upon it as one of the 

 questions now pressing for solution. 

 The pages of the Young Naturalist will 

 ever be open for the discussion of any 

 matter appertaining thereto, and we 

 believe one of the first and most im- 

 portant steps to take is to learn all 

 about our own fauna, which can be so 

 easily studied. When we have learned 

 what species vary, and how ; whether 

 the variation is one of latitude,- nature 

 of soil, &c, we. shall have begun to 

 know the A B C of it, and we believe 

 what we are now suggesting would 

 generally help to its early elucidation 

 and proper understanding. 



SPECIAL NOTICE. 



Our friends have had great trouble hitherto 

 in procuring the Young Naturalist through 

 a Bookseller : the firm who supplied the 

 trade at first being too far from the centre for 

 collectors to go to Walworth for odd copies of 

 a penny paper. We now have pleasure to 

 announce that we have arranged with 

 Messrs. John Kempster & Co., 

 St. Bride's Avenue, 



Fleet Street, 



London, E. C.| 



