2i THE LADY’S MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
almost all the books containing coloured plates of butterflies being not 
only very expensive, but generally containing only figures of the perfect 
insect. The present work bids fair to supply this desideratum ; as the 
figures are beautifully coloured, and each butterfly has its caterpillar and 
chrysalis on the same plate, together with the plants on which it generally 
feeds. 
As a specimen of the agreeable style in which the work is written, 
we may quote the following passage from the introduction by Mr. 
Humphreys:— 
“ During a recent tour through Italy I first conceived a predilection 
for the study of entomology. Early in the Italian spring, in the months 
of March and April, after a winter’s residence in Rome, my favourite 
rambles were over the desert yet beautiful Campagna ; and in these 
walks my attention was actively aroused by the profusion and variety of 
insect life, particularly of glittering butterflies, that in those early months 
already flitted over the flowery waste. As I stepped among tufts of 
the Alpine anemone, the crimson cyclamen, or purple squill, crowds of 
painted insects arose at every tread, as though a passing gust of wind 
had suddenly scattered a cloud of the many-coloured petals of the crushed 
flowers to the breeze. Later in the season the number still increased, 
and their brilliancy and novelty soon determined me to attempt the for¬ 
mation of a collection, reserving the classification and study till my 
return home ; when I discovered that many beautiful species of Lepidop- 
tera which I had deemed novelties were well known as indigenous to our 
own island : where, however, their comparatively unfrequent appearance 
had not forced them into notice, whilst in Italy their profusion had 
compelled attention. Such was the case with Papilio Machaon (the 
swallow-tail butterfly) as common on the Roman Campagna as the 
cabbage-white in our gardens. Mancipium Daplidice (the Bath white) 
and Pieris Cratsegi (the black-veined white) were still more numerous; 
whilst the whole Campagna about mid-day received quite a golden hue 
from the rich orange colours of Goniapteryx Cleopatra and Colias Edusa, 
both of which were in such profusion that I actually took above 
twenty specimens of the latter species at once, upon a gigantic thistle on 
the road to Tivoli.” 
Of the butterflies mentioned in this extract, the swallow-tail, and 
brimstone (Goniapteryx), are figured in the first plate ; Colias Edusa, 
the clouded yellow, in the second ; the Bath white, in plate six; and the 
black-veined white, in plate seven. In conclusion, we have only strongly 
to recommend the work to our readers, not only for its utility, but for 
the extraordinary beauty of the plates. 
