34 



THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



book, would be a good botanical lesson, j 

 the formation of it would be the first 

 step towards a Herbarium. Many 

 Botanists in drying plants for Herbaria, 

 pay too little regard to the natural 

 beauty of the specimen, and so long as 

 they have the specimen so that it can 

 be recognised On examination, they 

 care for nothing else. We think this 

 a great mistake. Some Entomologists 

 treat their insects in the same way, but 

 they are few in number, and we never 

 knew an Ornithologist who did not 

 make it his special study to preserve 

 and show his specimens in the most 

 perfectly natural manner. No one 

 who commenced to study Botany, after 

 the formation of such a scrap book as we 

 have suggested would be satisfied with 

 their plants, unless they were as like 

 life as they could be made. 



Besides mounting a plant on a page 

 of the book, as described, the margins 

 could well be occupied by the various 

 parts of the plant mounted singly. 

 The cotyledons or seed leaves, a per- 

 fect leaf, the petals mounted to show 

 their shape, the seed pod or whatever 

 the receptacle might be. If there were 

 not thought to improve the page, 

 another could be used for them, and 

 they could be displayed so as to look 

 well, as well as to be of scientific value. 

 In such genera as Geranium or Papaver 

 (the geranium or the poppy) the whole 

 of the British species could be displayed 

 on one page, showing all these impor- 

 parts. In larger genera, the leaves 

 could be shown on one page, the petals 



' on another, and so on, and where these 

 were thus displayed so as to be easily 

 compared, the beginner would find that 

 many things he had thought extremely 

 difficult became very easy indeed. If 

 parents would give their children a 

 little help and encouragement at the 

 commencement, they would soon take 

 an interest in such work, and the best 

 results would follow. Why has there 

 been, and still is, such a rage for col- 

 lecting Postage Stamps. There are 

 few school boys to-day who do not 

 collect, or have not collected stamps or 

 crests. The fact is, they have been 

 albe to do this without much help from 

 anyone, and if young people were aided 

 a little at first, they would collect other 

 things besides stamps, and as they 

 grew up, would study them, as well as 

 collect them. 



NOTES, CAPTURES, &C, 



! Food of Sturnus vulgaris (the 

 | v 

 Starling) in November. — When dissecting 



one of these birds 'on Saturday last, I found 



in the stomach 12 larvas, one. of them a 



sawfly larva, 3 worms, and a minute univalve 



shell about one-eighth of an inch long. — 



Geo. T. Wheeldon, 83, Colmore Row, 



Birmingham. 



Coleoptera at York. — Taking the advice 



j of my friend Mr. Gregson, that " work wins," 



j I had the good fortune to take (last Sunday 



! morning, 28th ult. ,) 2 specimens, male and 



j female of that fine insect ( Chlacnius nigricomis, ) 



on Fulfard Ings, in profusion I also took 



J Auchomamis junceus parmupunctatus, Selpha 



; atrata, and about 10 Staphylinus erythroptents, 



j a very fine Brachalytrous insect, all at tree 



! roots, on the edge of the flooded fields there. 



I —John H. Smedley, Fossgate, York, 30th 



j November, 1880. 



