Well seasoned mahogany or deal may be the material for the drawers, but on no account let them be of cedar, a material often used by ignorant or unprincipled makers, to the great detriment of the collection, and mortification of the collector, as resinous matter after a short time exudes from the pores of this wood, dropping down on to the glasses below in a gummy shower, and the effluvium seems to condense upon the contained insects, whose wings are gradually discoloured and disfigured by greasy looking blotches. The drawers are lined at bottom with cork, covered with pure white paper, which should be attached with thin paste.
The butterflies are then to be arranged in the drawers in perpendicular columns, and in accordance with some system of classification. If there be room it is well to have a considerable number of specimens of each species, especially when it is one liable to much variation. At least one of each sex should always be given, and also one of each sex showing the under surface. When the chrysalis can be procured, that also should be pinned down with its fellow-butterfly, and a good coloured drawing of each caterpillar would be a valuable addition to the series. Between the columns, lines should be
ruled varying in distance according to the breadth of the butterflies, and small labels should be pinned down at the foot of each species giving its specific name; the name of the genus being placed at the head of the first species of the genus. The names of the families and sub-families under which the genera are classed are also generally given in their respective places.
I have in this little work followed the system of classification used in the public collection of British butterflies at the British Museum, which seemed to me more intelligible and natural when applied to our very limited number of butterflies, than did the system of Doubleday adopted in the great world-wide collection which exists in the private entomological room of the British Museum.
The following table gives the first-mentioned arrangement of all the British species under their respective genera, sub-families, and families. The most authentic of the reputed species are also here inserted in their proper places.
It will be seen by the above list that seventy species are given as British. Of these, five species, viz. Papilio Podalirius, Erebia Ligea, Argynnis Dia, Chrysophanus Chryseis, and Polyommatus Bœticus, have been so rarely taken as to be refused a place among the regular denizens of our island. So that we can only reckon up the small number of sixty-five species of true British butterflies.
These it now remains to describe individually, but, prior to entering on that task, I would say a few words
on the acquirement of scientific nomenclature and systematic arrangement, a knowledge of which will facilitate even our recreations in natural history, while it is absolutely essential to carrying out the really scientific study of any department.
It is true, that the painting of a butterfly and the fragrance of a flower can give deep pleasure to a mind quite unconscious of their Latin names, their genus, order, or anything of the kind; but the interest of natural objects is, I am sure, greatly augmented when we acquire some insight, however dimly, into the wonderful mechanism of creation's plan, its infinite gradation of forms, and their curious, subtle relationships, to which a good system of classification serves, in some degree, as an index. I say, "in some degree," as a system framed in perfect accordance with that of nature is a discovery rather to be desired than hoped for, with the limited knowledge at present permitted to us.