2(5 
MEMOIR OP 
“ to see a lady actuated by a love for insects so 
truly heroic, as to induce her to traverse the seas for 
die purpose of painting and describing them." The 
inconveniences to which she must have submitted 
in leaving the comforts of home, and repairing to a 
distant land, where her health was endangered by 
exposure to a burning sun and a most unwholesome 
climate, must indeed be admitted to imply a degree 
of zeal of which we do not find many examples, and 
which renders the epithet employed by the French 
naturalist by no means inapplicable. 
The place of her destination was Dutch Guiana, 
often called Sm-inam, flom a river of that name on 
which the capital (Paramaribo) is situated. As a 
Dutch colony, it natundly aJforded her advantages 
which could not easily have been obtained else- 
where. Its situation, too, was highly favourable to 
the purpose she had in view. Lying between 4° 
45" and fi° of north latitude, the temperature is 
very high ; and as the rains are copious, and many 
part.s of the country low and marshy, vegetation 
is sustained in the greatest luxuriance throughout 
a great part of the year, affording appropriate places 
of resort to many of the most gorgeous produc- 
tions of the tropics. In this fruitful region, so po- 
pulous in 
bees and birds. 
And fairy formed, and many-coloured things, 
her ardent curiosity found ample means of gratifica- 
tion, and she remained nearly two years diligently 
employed in collecting and painting insects, shells, 
