MARIA SIEILLA MERIAN. 
33 
them exhibit more of tlie artist than of the naturalist, 
being disposed with a view to effect, rather than for 
the pui-pose of displaying their habitual and charac- 
teristic attitudes. When circumstances did not 
admit of personal observation, she gave far too easy 
belief to the reports of the Indians, who seem 
occasionally to have imposed upon her. Hence it 
is that she has introduced many idle stories into her 
work, for which her only authority is, persuasum 
cst miM ab Indies and also the fictitious figure in 
Plate XLix. composed of the body of a Tettigonia, 
sumioimted by the mitred head of a lantern fly, the 
manufacture, in all probability, of some cunning 
negro, who doubtless turned the \mi([ue specimen 
to good account. Tlie work, besides, is preeminently 
liable to the objection which applies so forcibly to 
all the pictorial illustrations published both in that 
aud the succeeding age ; namely, a want of precision 
and finishing in the minute details, which are 
indispensable requisites in every delineation de- 
signed to be of sennee in natural history. 
But notwithstanding these defects, some of which 
are almost inseparable from the nature of the un- 
dertaking, white others are to be ascribed to the 
imperfect state of engraving at that period, as ap- 
plied to the representation of natural objects, the 
work in question forms an important contribution 
to the library' of the naturalist, and is a striking 
memorial of the zeal and ability of its fair author. 
The fidelity uith which many tropical plants are 
c 
