boiled in water, and beaten in a mortar till they are reduced into a kind of paste, and then boiled with a solution of gum arabic or of size, to give tenacity to the paste, which is afterwards formed into different toys, &c. by pressing it into oiled moulds. When dry, it is done over with a mixture of size and lamp-black, and afterwards varnished. The black varnish for these toys, according to Dr. Lewis, is prepared as follows. Some colophony, or turpentine, boiled down till it becomes black and friable, is melted in a glazed earthen vessel, and thrice as much amber in fine powder sprink led in by degrees, with the addition of a little spirit or oil of turpentine now and then: when the amber is melted, sprinkle in the same quantity of sarcocolla, continuing to stir them, and to add more spirit of turpentine, till the whole becomes fluid; then strain out the clear through a coarse hair bag, pressing it gently between hot boards. This varnish, mixed with ivory black in fine powder, is applied in a hot room on the dried paper paste, which is then set in a gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third day in a very hot one, and let stand each time till the oven grows cold.

PAPILIO, in natural history, butterfly, a genus of insects of the order Lepidoptera: antennæ growing thicker towards the tip, and generally ending in a knob; wings when fitting erect, the edges meeting together over the abdomen; they fly in the daytime. The number of species under this genns (not less than 1200) renders it necessary to divide the whole into sections, which are instituted from the habit or general appearance, and, in some degree, from the distribution of the colour on the wings. We shall give the arrangement according to Linnæus, which in this instance exhibits an attempt to combine, in some degree, natural and civil history, by attaching the memory of some illustrious ancient name to an insect of a particular cast. By this plan there are five divisions, viz.

1. Equites: upper wings longer from the posterior angle to the tip than to the base; antennæ frequently filiform. The Equites are, Trojans, having red spots or patches on each side their breasts; or Greeks, without red marks on the breast, of gayer colours, in general, than the former, and often having an eye-shaped spot at the inner corner of the lower wings.

2. Heliconii: wings narrow, entire, often naked, or semi-transparent; the upper ones

oblong, the lower ones very short. In some of the Heliconii the under wings are slightly indented.

3. Danai, from the sons and daughters of Danaus. These are divided into D. candidi and D. festivi; the wings of the former are white, of the latter they are variegated. Of

4. Nymphales: wings denticulate. these there are the gemmati and the phalerati; the one having eye-shaped spots either on all the wings, or on the upper or lower pair only; the others have no spots on their wings, but, in general, a great variety of colours.

5. Plebeii: small; the larva often contracted. These are divided into the rurales, wings with obscure spots; and the urbicolæ, wings mostly with transparent spots.

Among the Equites Troes, the P. Pria. mus should take the lead, not only from the corresponding dignity of the name, but from the exquisite appearance of the animal itself, which Linnæus considered as the most beautiful of the whole papilionaceous tribe. This admirable species measures more than six inches from wing's end to wing's end: the upper wings are velvetblack, with a broad band of the most beau tiful grass-green, and of a satiny lustre, drawn from the shoulder to the tip, and another on the lower part of the wing, following the shape of that part, and of a somewhat undulating appearance as it approaches the tip: the lower wings are of the same green colour, edged with velvetblack, and marked by four spots of that colour; while at the upper part of each, or at the part where the upper wings lap over, is a squarish orange-coloured spot: the thorax is black, with sprinklings of lucid green in the middle, and the abdomen is of a bright yellow or gold colour. On the under side of the animal the distribution of colours is somewhat different, the green being disposed in central patches on the upper wings, and the lower being marked by more numerous black as well as orange spots. The red or bloody spots on each side of the thorax are not always to be seen on this, the Trojan monarch. The P. Priamus is a very rare insect, and is a na tive of the island of Amboyna.

P. Antenor is a very large species, measuring six inches and a half in extent of wings: its colour is black, with numerous cream-coloured spots and patches, and the under wings, which are tailed, or furnished with a pair of lengthened processes in the middle, are edged with a row of red cres.

cent-shaped spots. It is said to be a native of India.

Among the Equites Achivi the P. Mene laus may be considered as one of the most splendidly beautiful of the butterfly tribe. Its size is large, measuring when expanded about six inches; and its colour is the most brilliant silver-blue that imagination can conceive, changing, according to the varia tion of the light, into a deeper blue, and in some lights to a greenish cast: on the under side it is entirely brown, with numerous deeper and lighter undulations, and three large ocellated spots on each wing. It is a native of South America, and proceeds from a large yellow caterpillar, beset with nu merous, upright, sharp, black spines. It changes into an angular chrysalis, of a brown colour, and distinguished by having the proboscis projecting in a semicircular manner over the breast; from this chrysalis, in about fourteen days, proceeds the complete inscct.

The P. Machaon is an insect of great beauty, and may be considered as the only British species of Papilio belonging to the tribe of Equites. It is commonly known among the English collectors by the title of the swallow-tailed butterfly, and is of a beautiful yellow, with black spots or patches along the upper edge of the superior wings: all the wings are bordered with a deep edging of black, decorated with a double row of crescent-shaped spots, of which the upper row is blue, and the lower yellow: the under wings are tailed, and are marked at the inner angle or tip with a round red spot bordered with blue and black. The caterpillar of this species feeds principally on fennel, and other umbelliferous plants, and is sometimes found on rne. It is of a green colour, encircled with numerous black bands, spotted with red, and is furnished on the top of the head with a pair of short ten tacula of a red colour, which it occasionally protrudes from that part. In the month of July it changes into a yellowish-grey angu lar chrysalis, affixed to some convenient part of the plant, or other neighbouring substance, and from this chrysalis in the month of Angust proceeds the complete insect.

colour, with a slight semi-transparency to. wards the tips of the wings, which are deco rated with velvet-black spots, and on each of the lower wings are two most beautiful ocellated spots, consisting of a carminecoloured circle, with a white centre and black exterior border. The caterpillar is black, with small red spots, and a pair of short retractile tentacula in front: it feeds on orpine, and some other succulent plants, and changes into a brown chrysalis, covered with a kind of glaucous or violet-coloured powder.

Of the division entitled Danai Candidi, the common large white butterfly, or P. Brassicæ, is a familiar example. This insect is too well known to require particular description; and it may be only necessary to remind the reader that it proceeds from a yellowish caterpillar, freckled with bluish and black spots, and which changes during the autumn into a yellowish-grey chrysalis, affixed in a perpendicular direction to some wall, tree, or other object, some filaments being drawn across the thorax in order the more conveniently to secure its position. The fly appears in May and June, and is seen through all the summer.

Among the Nymphales Gemmati, few can exceed in elegance the P. Io, or peacock butterfly, a species by no means uncommon in our own country: the ground colour of this insect is orange brown, with black bars, separated by yellow intermediate spaces on the upper edge of the superior wings, while at the tip of each is a most beautiful large eye-shaped spot, formed by a combination of black, brown, and blue, with the addition of whitish specks on each of the lower wings is a still larger eye-shaped spot, consisting of a black central patch, varied with blue, and surrounded by a zone of pale brown, which is itself deeply bordered with black; all the wings are scalloped or denticulated. The caterpillar is black, with numerous white spots, and black ramified spines: it feeds principally on the nettle; changing to chrysalis in July, and the fly appearing in August.

the lower wings tipped with two narrow, black, tail-shaped processes. It is the P. Marsyas of Linnæus.

The larvae of butterflies are known by the name of caterpillars, and are extremely various in their forms and colours; some being smooth, others beset with spines; some are observed to protrude from their front, when disturbed, a pair of short feelers, nearly analogous to those of a snail. A caterpillar, when grown to its full size, retires to a convenient spot, and securing itself properly by a small quantity of silken filaments, either suspends itself by the tail, hanging with its head downwards, or else in an upright position, with the body fastened round the middle by a proper number of filaments. It then casts off the caterpillar skin, and commences chrysalis, in which state it continues till the enclosed butterfly is ready for birth, which liberating itself from the skin of the chrysalis, remains till its wings, which are at first very short,weak, and covered with moisture, are fully extended: this happens in the space of a few minutes, when the animal suddenly quits the state of inactivity to which it had long been confined, and becomes at pleasure an inhabitant of the air.

PAPILIONACEI, in botany, a term applied to certain flowers, from their supposed resemblance to the figure of a butterfly. The term is applied also to the thirty. second order of Linnæus's “Fragments of a Natural Method." They are divided into two sections; viz. those that have the filaments on the stamina distinct, and those with one set of united filaments. These plants, otherwise called leguminous, from the seed-vessel, which is that sort termed a legomen, are very different both in size and duration; some of them being herbaceous, and those either annual or perential; others, woody vegetables of the shrub and tree kind, a few of which rise to the height of seventy feet, and upwards. The herbaceous plants of this order generally climb; for being weak, and as it were helpless of themselves, indulgent nature has either provided them with tendrils, and even sharp-pointed hooks at their extremities, to fasten upon the neighbouring trees or rocks, or endued the stalks with a faculty of twisting themselves for the purpose of support around the bodies in their neighbourhood. The pea, vetch, and kidney-bean, afford familiar examples of the appearances in question. The shrubs and trees of this natural family are mostly armed with strong spines. The roots are

very long, and furnished with fibres: some genera have fleshy tubercles, placed at proper intervals along the fibres. The stems are cylindric, as are likewise the young branches, which are placed alternately: those which climb twist themselves from right to left, in a direction opposite to the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. The bark of the large trees is extremely thick and wrinkled, so as to resemble a net with long meshes; the wood is very hard in the middle, and commonly coloured or veined; the alburnum is less hard, and generally of a yellow colour. The buds are hemispheri cal, without scales, and proceed from the branches horizontally, a little above the angle which they form with the leaves. The leaves are alternate, and of different forms, being either simple, finger-shaped, or winged. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and proceed either from the wings of the leaves, as in furze, liquorice, lupin, kidney-bean, &c. or from the extremity of the branches, as in ebony of Crete, false acacia, trefoil, coraltree, &c. The calyx is a perianthium of one leaf, bell-shaped, branching out at the bottom, and cut on its brim or margin into five irregular divisions, or teeth, the lowermost of which, being the odd one, is longer than the rest: the other four stand in pairs, of which the uppermost is shortest, and stands furthest asunder. The bottom of the calyx is moistened with a sweet liquor, like honey, which may be deemed the nectarium of these plants. The petals are four or five in uumber, very irregular, and from their figure and position bear an obvious resemblance in most of the genera to a butterfly expanding its wings for flight. The stamina are generally ten in number. These are either totally distinct, as in plants of the first section; or united by the filaments into one or two bundles, involving the seed bud, as in those of the second and third. In the latter case, where there are two sets of united filaments, one of the sets is composed of nine stamina, which are united into a crooked cylinder, that is cleft on one side through its whole length. Along this cleft lies the tenth filament, or stamen, which constitutes the second set, and is often so closely attached to the large bundle, that it cannot be separated without some difficulty. The seed-bud is single, placed upon the receptacle of the flower, oblong, cylindrical, slightly compressed, of the length of the cylinder of the united stamina by which it is involved; and sometimes, as in the coraltree, elevated by a slender foot-stalk, which