which we find in our streams, as much as the Victoria itself surpasses our modest white waterlily?

Why,

But leaving the Palace, and going beyond the terraces into the garden, till we reach the abode of the extinct animals, where we find here and there a rustic seat, placed beneath some old oak, which had possession of the soil long before the Crystal Palace had ever been dreamed of-what changes has not that oak witnessed? in 1837 I was here before Penge Common was enclosed, and a rare place it was for wild flowers and insects; intersected by the old Croydon canal, it abounded in such insects as pass a portion of their lives beneath the surface of the waters, and many a chace had I after some of the large dragon flies which flew so swiftly through the glades of the sylvan scene, and here it was that I first made acquaintance with the ringlet butterfly (Hipparchia Hyperanthus). I couldn't conceive for some time what those black butterflies could be, and then I hurried after some, and got one into my net, and was delighted to find it a novelty, a species I had never seen before. But some of my readers will little care to hear of the doings of a boy of fifteen; so as Penge Common no longer exists, and the old oak, as it moans in the breeze and murmurs to the

96 JUNE IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LONDON.

upstart rhododendrons around him of the strange things he had seen there in his youth, is perhaps hardly listened to by the flowering shrubs with the deference which he thinks due to his age-we will revert from what has been to what is, and return to the terraces in time to see the fountains play. It is very difficult to say to which fountain the palm of beauty should be awarded, some of the smaller fountains are the more graceful, but the large fountain will always draw the greatest crowd of sight-seers; and you have the delicate minutiae of the basket work borderpattern for those who like fine work, and the colossal central fountain for those who prefer things on a large scale. It is unfortunate for the fountains that the situation is such an exposed one, as unless it be a very close still day (such a day as few people are disposed to wish for), the effect of the fountains is much marred by the wind; still they are well worth going to see, and are more likely to be enjoyed after two or three visits than on the first occasion of seeing them, for when we have heard a great deal of anything we are sure to be disappointed. I wonder if any child ever found an elephant as big as he expected to see it!

CONCLUSION.

SOME may be disposed to inquire whether, if natural history be worth studying, to which branch of it they shall devote their attention. Mr. Kingsley has so eloquently advocated in Glaucus the study of "The Wonders of the Shore," that those who are at all disposed to the study of marine animal and vegetable life cannot do better than read his book to see what he has to say on the subject. But it is not everyone that has facilities for studying those extraordinary developments found beneath the surface of the waters, where animal and vegetable life seem so curiously intertwined that for long many of the lower branches of the animal kingdom were reputed to belong to the territory of vegetable growths. Some, too, do not find that peculiar fascination in this branch of study that others do, for all tastes are not alike, and it is the very diversity of tastes that ensures the due investigation of the various branches of science. All are not geologists, all are not photographers, and wisely so. In the same way, all who delight in observing the habits and functions of animals

H

select particular groups to which to pay particular attention; and while the periods of migration, notes and nidification of birds afford matters of supreme interest to ornithologists, who observe with extreme curiosity any departure from the ordinary habit of any species, others are found to take specially in their charge the investigation of the habits of reptiles-and so on through the whole scale of nature.

One large division of the animal kingdom has, however, hitherto had too few followers, and the extent to which it has lagged behind the increasing intelligence of the present day is not very complimentary to its manifold attractions.

Botany has long been a widely studied branch of natural history, and we have many excellent standard works on the subject of our British Flora. The very existence of these works facilitates the continual growth of a crop of botanists among the rising generation, and there are several admirably adapted elementary works to assist the development of the young ideas; but it may readily be imagined that had we neither Sowerby's English Botany, nor Babington's Manual of British Botany (one of the most conveniently compact works for promoting the vigorous prosecution of the science that could possibly have been conceived), nor Dr. Lindley's School Botany, &c.,

the progress of botanical science amongst us would not be so rapid as it is at present.

Now the neglected division of the animal kingdom to which I have alluded is Entomologythe study of insects. We have no standard descriptive work of any one order of insects—why? The reason is obvious; the number of species is so great, the amount of observation required is so enormous, that to meet with an individual gifted with a taste for Entomology, which is, of course, a sine quâ non, who has at the same time unlimited opportunities of collecting, for unless the entomologist is himself a collector, he cannot observe the habits of the different species-habits often of the greatest importance as aids to a correct classification; but, further, this indefatigable and ever active collector must be deeply read in all the literature which concerns the order of insects which he collects: he must have pondered and pored over I don't know how many musty tomes in order to unravel this or that obscure description; and it is only when all this has been done, that he can decide with any attempt at certainty whether a particular species he may have met with is already described, is already named. But, further, he must have an acute eye at distinguishing minute characters; he must have a peculiar tact in discriminating which