MARIA SIBILLA MERIAN. 
45 
sun has been descending, and I have been perform- 
ing the solemn service of the dead, one of these 
creatures has lighted on a neighbouring plant, and 
there commenced his evening bjunn, and thus 
disturbed me. At other times, attracted by the 
lights at evening service, the noisy intruder will 
enter my parish church, and distress the preacher 
with his rival voice. If its jarring notes cannot be 
said to drown my powerful organ, they are certainly 
heard distinctly above every thing by the still 
assembly. Madam Merian gives us an accmmt of 
her first discovery of the shining property of the 
Fulgora, and tells us of the horror which seized her 
when she opened the box to separate the (quarrelling 
inmates and saw it filled with fire. A glass full of 
.my of our luminous insects, when in health, is, 
indeed, a splendid show. The plant is the mon- 
strous or double variety of the pomegranate f Punica 
Granatmn, L.), sometimes cultivated as an orna- 
ment of our gardens.” 
e have now mentioned some of the principal 
plates of this splendid work, and although there are 
many others of great interest and value, an account 
of them would exceed the limits which we can 
assign to the present notice. Towards the close of 
the volume, the drawing and engraving are in ge- 
neral less cm’efully executed, and the objects 
represented are of a more miscellaneous description. 
Serpents, lizards, shells, and fi-ogs, are occasionally 
introduced, and one of the last plates is occupied by 
