MARIA SIBILLA MERIAN. 
21 
leave tlie country. In consequence of this separa- 
tion, the lady never assumed her husband’s name in 
any of her publications, hut became knoivn to the 
public by her maiden appellation. After this event, 
experiencing perhaps the expediency of having some 
means of emolument in addition to her mor-e habi- 
tual occupation, she is said to have employed a 
portion of her tune in executing pieces of em- 
broider)'; and it is asserted that she handled her 
needle nith as much skill as she did her pencil, her 
productions being distinguished by an elegance and 
delicacy of execution which made them resemble 
paintings. In order to encourage others of her sex 
to cultivate this elegant accomplishment, she pub- 
lished a book of designs, which she named “ The 
New Book of Flow'crs." 
The resolution which she had formed to illustrate 
by her pencil the appearance and metamorphoses 
of insects, was, however, by no means forgotten. 
On the contrary, so zealous was she in the prosecu- 
tion of this object, that, according to her own account, 
she abandoned for a time all kmd of company, and 
applied herself exclusively to painting insects, in 
order that she might, if possible, be enabled to 
represent them with sufficient accuracy to give 
satisfaction to natvunl philosophers.* Tlie result of 
her labours in this department appeared in 1679, 
in a volume published at Nuremberg, entitled “ Eru- 
carum ortus, alimenta, et paradoxa metamorphosis,” 
the plates engraved by herself. Two other parts 
* Pref. to Insects of Surinam. 
