INSECTS AS ORNAMENTS OF THE GARDEN. 109 
On the Continent, the Cheddar Pink, or Mountain Pink, as 
it is sometimes called, is very local in its distribution. The 
following are the countries in which it occurs, with the ver- 
nacular names of the plant : — Belgium, blauwachtige Angelier ; 
Luxemburg, Switzerland, the east of P'rance, CEillet bienatre ; 
South and West Germany, graugrune Nelke; North Italy, Garo- 
fano appannato ; Bohemia, Hwozdik vychlicek ; Moravia and the 
Tyrol, graublattrige Bergnelke ; Croatia, Klincic, Transylvania, 
hegyi Szegfii ; Roumania, Diant verdiu. 
Frederic N. Williams. 
INSECTS AS ORNAMENTS OF THE GARDEN. 
ISSjpSsadRT has been defined as “matter in the wrong place,” 
P jwjgj and Southey, in a passage which I cannot for the 
I PJSgJ moment lay my hand on, remarks that we have not 
1 taken enough animals into alliance with us, and that 
the more spiders there were in the stable the less would the 
horses suffer from the flies. A later writer, Mr. A. R. Wallace, 
looks forward to the time when the earth will produce only culti- 
vated plants and domesticated animals, and when man’s selection 
shall have supplanted natural selection (Essay on the Action of 
Natural Selection on Man). 
To this pass we are visibly tending in all parts of the world 
where civilised man has established himself ; for the clearing of 
forests, the draining of marshes, or even the settlement of open 
country, destroys the native inhabitants of the soil, root and 
branch. And in the wake of civilised man come the hog, the 
goat, the rabbit, the thistle, and even the water- weeds, to com- 
plete the havoc which he has made. 
In England the destruction of native plant-life is the end and 
object of scientific farming. We hear of one man boasting of 
having levelled so many yards of old fences, meaning the beauti- 
ful hedges, which but a few years ago adorned our English lanes 
and meadows to a much greater extent than at present. It 
is recorded to the credit of another successful farmer that if 
he cannot grow a good crop on poor soil, at all events nothing 
else is allowed to grow there. 
With the plants, the insects which feed on them likewise dis- 
appear ; and even the destruction of nettles and thistles robs our 
gardens of the presence of many of our most beautiful English 
butterflies. 
But it is useless to regret the inevitable course of the progress 
of events, and our only remedy is to march with the times, and 
improve our present opportunities. Almost the only insects 
which we domesticate at present are the bee and the silkworm ; 
but why should we not rear insects for their beauty as well as for 
