Botany and Zoology. 



287 



mark the thin clouds of fleecy snow uniting gradually into a solid bank, — 1 

 affording glimpses the while, as they join and separate, of the fair crea- 

 tion stretched out beneath ; to smell the damp, cold vapor rising from 

 the deep defiles around us, where vegetation is still rampant on primeval 

 rocks and new generations of trees are springing up, untouched by man, 

 from the decaying carcases of the old ones ; to listen in the still, calm 

 evening air to the humming of the insect world (the most active tenants 

 of these elevated tracts) ; and to mark, as the daylight wanes, the un- 

 numbered orbs of night stealing one by one on to the wide arch of 

 heaven, as brilliant as they were on the first evening of their birth ; — 

 are the lofty enjoyments, which the intellectual mind can grasp in these 

 transcendent heights. 



" It is needless however to pursue the picture further, for it is impos- 

 sible to do justice to what experience alone can enable us to appreciate. 

 And let not any one suppose that the varied objects and scenes of nov- 

 elty which administer to our superior feelings, and charm the eye, in 

 these upland solitudes are adapted only to the scrutiny of a naturalist, and 

 are either beneath the notice of, or else cannot be sufficiently entered into, 

 by the general mj&s, — for such is by no means the case. A single trial, 

 we are convined, will be more than enough to prove the reverse, pro- 

 vided the adventurer be not altogether insensible to perceptions from 

 without, or incurious as to the workings of the external universe around 

 him. This however, we need scarcely add, is sine qua non, — for it has 

 been well said that " he who wondereth at nothing hath no capabilities 

 of bliss ; but he that scrutinizeth trifles hath a store of pleasure to his 

 hand : and happy and wise is the man to whose mind a trifle existeth 

 not." 



"The great expense necessarily attending the publication of a work 

 like the present one will be a sufficient guarantee that it has been un- 

 dertaken purely as a 'labor of love,' and with the sole aim (within its 

 prescribed limits) of arriving at the truth. How far I have succeeded 

 in this is a problem which must be solved by others : meanwhile I ap- 

 peal boldly to observation, in situ, as the test by which I would most de- 

 sire to be judged, — having but little fear of the experiment, and believing 

 that we are never in so favorable a position for deciding on the relative 

 importance of Zoological differences as when the local circumstances 

 connected with them are taken into account. Where I have overlooked 

 facts, or failed in my conclusions concerning them, I must crave that in- 

 dulgence which is never denied to the honest inquirer even in a field so 

 small as that throughout which my researches have been prosecuted, — 

 researches which I am well aware can at the best add but an iota to our 

 knowledge, — ' A drop dissevered from the boundless sea.' " 



The second work discusses a philosophical question in science through 

 the facts the author has gathered in his entomological researches. While 

 having no sympathy with the notion of species rising into higher species, 

 he illustrates the relations of genera as follows, taking the ground that 

 they are realities and have their well defined types or centres while on 

 their borders they may blend with other genera. 



" Taking the preceding considerations into account, the question will 

 perhaps arise, — How then is a genus to be defined ? To which I may 



