INTRODUCTION. 
77 
has been handled by many modem naturalists. The 
numerous illustrations of lepidoptcra published of 
late years, have been partial, being either selections 
from the rvhole class, or forming part of a local 
fauna. In either case, the subject is regarded in 
too insulated a light. The illustrator of foreign 
butterflies selects a species, and by giving promi- 
nence to all its minute characters, proposes it with 
considerable plausibility as a distinct genus. The 
local faunist divides his groups in reference to his 
own limited sphere of observation. Neither con- 
templates the possibility of being ever called upon 
to elaborate a general system, and he leaves it to 
those who are to reconcile all existing inconsist- 
ences. Hence it follows, that so many of the 
genera proposed in local and partial works can find 
no place in a general one ; for however specious they 
may appear when standing alone, it is often found 
that they will not unite into a consistent whole, 
and they may therefore be said still further to em- 
broil the very subject they were designed to. eluci- 
date. 
The Linnean distribution was vague and unsatis- 
factory, even at the time rvlien it was first produced, 
and soon became utterly inapplicable when the 
amount of known species was increased. But it did 
not fail to exercise, like every other system ema- 
nating from that gifted mind, a powerful influence 
on the progress of the science, and is interesting on 
account of its ingenuity and poetical elegance. 
