Store boxes are sometimes chosen in preference to cabinets because they are more portable, and because they can be arranged on shelves—an important consideration when floor space is not available.
These boxes should be cork-lined and glazed like the cabinet drawers; and if they are made in two equal portions, lined with cork on both sides, and closing up like a book, they may be arranged on shelves like books, in which position they will collect but little dust.
Both store boxes and cabinets are always kept in stock by the dealers, the former ranging from a few shillings each, and the latter from fifteen shillings to a guinea per drawer. Knowing this, you can decide for yourself between the two alternatives—making and purchasing.
We have now to consider the manner in which our specimens should be arranged and labelled.
The table forming [Appendix I] contains the names of all the British butterflies and larger moths, and shows their division into Sections, Tribes, Families, and Genera. This table is the result of most careful study on the part of leading entomologists, and shows how, in their opinion, the insects can best be arranged to show their relation to one another; and you cannot do better than adopt the same order in your collection.
Complete label lists can be purchased, printed on one side of the paper only. These, when cut up, supply you with neat labels for your specimens.
If you intend to study the British Lepidoptera as completely as possible, you may as well start at once with a sufficiently extensive cabinet, and arrange all the labels of your list before you introduce the insects. You will thus have a place provided ready for each specimen as you acquire it, and the introduction of species
obtained later on will not compel you to be continually moving and rearranging the drawers.