cial tact to avoid giving anything which may be drawn from the pupil.

Now let attention be called to the individuals which have been grouped under the title mandibulata. It will be noticed at once that each is provided with four wings. It will also be as quickly noticed that, while in some insects these wings are of nearly the same consistency, in others the forward or upper pair seem to have been constructed with special reference to preserving the hinder and more delicate pair from injury. The pupils will at once arrange in one place the insects with the strongly made upper wings. Now, a little closer examination will separate these last into two sets, one of which is characterized by having the outer wings meet in a straight line on the top of the back, the two wings just touching edge to edge, while the other set have wings which lap more or less the one over the other. In the former set, the individuals usually have the upper part of the body horizontal or regularly convex, while in the latter set the wings in repose are frequently placed the one above the other, and so depressed each way from a straight line above the back, as to resemble more or less the roof of a house. Of course, the conspicuous examples must be taken as types for illustration. The former of these two sets may be called the sheath-winged insects as the under wings and frequently the body are sheathed under and within the upper wings for protection; the latter may be called the roof-winged insects, for reasons above suggested; or as the ridge pole of a roof should be straight, the latter may be called the straight-winged insects.

Care must be taken, as already suggested, in developing the scientific names of these sets or groups. The words orthography, orthodox, orthoëpy may have been already analyzed by the pupil, so that in orthoptera he has only the second half of the word to occasion him much difficulty. The quarto provides us with the Greek pteron, a wing, and the word is at once no more difficult than straightwinged. Coleoptera should also be rendered familiar by a full analysis and discussion, and afterwards by constant use.

It may also be profitably noticed in this connection that while the gauzy wings of the coleoptera, by reason of their extent, are of necessity folded both ways, so as to be securely packed under and within the upper wings or elytra, the under wings of the orthoptera being not infrequently shorter than the protecting elytra need to be folded but one way, and hence open and close after the manner of a fan.

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Let us now examine those mandibulata which were temporarily placed on one side, and whose wings do not display so great a variation in material or in structure. We find many of them with the fore-wings of about the same size as the hind-wings, and with both pairs very profusely netted with veins running seemingly at random, but, on a closer examination, evidently arranged according to some definite plan. Since the nerve-structure of the wings is here so peculiarly conspicuous, it will be the most natural thing in the world, after a little etymological discussion of allied words,* for the pupil to suggest that this peculiar group shall be called neuroptera. Since the otder group is composed of individuals in which the nerve structure is not so noticeable, but whose wings are nevertheless all membranous in character, the membrane-winged insects will be sufficiently appropriate, and hymenoptera, as an equivalent will have the advantage of being more euphonious, and also of being constructed on the same plan as the names of the other orders.

But we have another group of orders. The first thing that will suggest itself is, doubtless, that some of the so-called haustellata have but two wings. Though English words with the prefix dis from the Greek are rare, the allied Latin bis or bi is so common that the transition from one to the other may be effected with the slightest trouble. From the remaining insects may be sorted out all those from which a powder rubs off when brought in contact with the hand. A pocket lens is as essential to a teacher as a pocket knife, and the shape of the particles of dust may first be seen, and afterwards sketched upon the board on a larger scale. The differences noticeable in the scales make an excellent subject of remark, and the varying shape of the roots (!) of the same suggest at once sufficient reason why the dust is more easily rubbed from some than from other insects, the night-fliers usually losing the covering of the wings much more readily than the day-fliers. Hence the common name miller for night-flying moth. Take this opportune occasion for frowning down the common but objectionable expression moth-miller, and develop the word lepidoptera as preferable to scale-winged insects.

We have yet a few insects left, which have some peculiarities of their own. By many all these have been placed in the same order, but most modern systematists prefer to separate them into two orders. It will be observed that some have the two pairs of wings entirely membranous, while in others the fore-wings are, for one half or two

Kingdom.
Animal

Radiata, .....
Mollusca,
Articulata, ..
Vertebrata,..

doms. Sub-king

Vermes, ...
Crustaces,..
Insecta, ....

Classes.

thirds of their length from the body, composed of a heavier, parchment-like material. From this circumstance arose the name hemiptera,* the old name of the order which embraced the remaining haustellata. Half-winged insects, however, is such an evident misnomer that the etymologist is rejoiced that the scientist has thought best to subdivide the order. Since, then, the material of the wings is evidently not the same throughout, it will be considered at least appropriate to call these insects the heteroptera, † while the remaining haustellata, whose two pairs of wings are of the same texture, may as appro priately be called the homoptera. I

Let us now as a sort of resumé of our work place on the board a synopsis, somewhat as in the margin.

The teacher will note that this synopsis forms the basis of still more extended observations as to the different insects included within the various orders. These are barely hinted at by the English names suggested. The reading of some such work as Packard's Guide to the Study of Insects is here a necessity for the inquisitive teacher. If it is preferred, a form of synopsis showing both the results of the analysis and the grounds for the various subdivisions may profitably be written out, and perhaps copied by the pupils. Such a compacted analysis would appear somewhat as follows:

AINMALS.

Diptera – Flies.
Homoptera -- Tree-hoppers, Cicadas, etc.
Heteroptera - Bugs.
Lepidoptera -- Butterflies, Moths, etc.

With back bone, vertebrata; with jointed integument, articulata; with soft bodies, frequently protected by a shell, mollusca; with parts of body radiating from a centre, radiata.

ARTICULATA.
Breathing by means of tubes which permeate the

Orthoptera

Orders. Neuroptera --- Dragon-flies, May-flies. Coleoptera ---- Beetles. Hymenoptera - Bees, Wasps, Ants, Saw-flies, etc.

Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, etc.

Common Names.

body, insecta; breatoing by means of gills, crustacea; bereathing by any other apparatus, vermes.

INSECTA.

With head, thorax and abdomen distinct, six legs, insecta genuina; with head and thorax combined, eight legs, arachnida; with thorax and abdomen combined, many legs, myriapoda.

INSECTA GENUINA.

With jaws, mandibulata; without jaws, haustellata.

MANDIBULATA.

With four wings, the upper pair (elytra) chitinous, lower pair folded both ways in repose, coleoptera; with four wings, the upper pair coriaceous, under pair folded lengthwise like a fan, orthoptera; with four wings, all membranous, all the wings numerously veined, neuroptera; with four wings, all membranous, but with few veins, hymenoptera.

HAUSTELLATA.

With four wings, covered with scales lapping one over the other, like shingles on a house, lepidoptera; with four wings, upper wings coriaceous next to the body, heteroptera; with four wings, upper wings of the same material throughout, homoptera; with two wings, diptera.

0. S. WESTCOTT. (To be continued.)

SECONDARY INSTRUCTION - MISTAKE CORRECTED.

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By the minutes of the proceedings of the Principals' Meeting, held in December last, published in the February number of the JOURNAL, great injustice was done the undersigned by representing him as entertaining views entirely antagonistic to secondary instruction. Were this the fact, then, in view of the position he holds, a livelier example of perfect inconsistence could hardly be cited.

Pending the discussion of "Nominal Superintendents," at that meeting, I took occasion to read from a report of a representative of this class of officials, in order to exemplify some of the evils arising to the cause of education from such a systent of superintendency. The views set forth in the extracts read are of a character that merit the censure of every friend of the common school, and hence I stoutly object to the minutes as reported by the JOURNAL, asking the privilege of correcting them, lest false opinions in reference to myself in the matter obtain.

The views attributed to me by our worthy secretary of the occasion, in the paragraph of digressions, are not mine, but belong to one of a class that would confine public education to the three R's; that are forever harping upon the enormous expense of secondary instruction, while they utterly fail to comprehend the powerful leverage it affords to the primary work.

With a good deal of self-satisfaction, at least, I class myself with the ardent supporters of secondary and superior public education. I think I duly appreciate the grandeur of the work accomplished by the high schools, normal schools, and colleges of the state, in their respective spheres, in turning out scholarly men and women. fully aware, too, that their value as a stimulant to schools below them is beyond human calculation. Upon the efficiency of our higher institutions, depends the tone of our common schools. The good resulting to the former from a liberal support by public funds and pub

a lic favor is generously shared by the latter. The improvement of one is the elevation of the other. Their destinies are interwoven. A thrust at the higher grades of instruction involves injury, of greater or less moment, to all grades of public education. Janesville.

R. W. BURTON.

I am

EXAMINATION PAPERS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

RHETORIC.

I send you two of our examination papers which may be of interest to some of your readers. The first, on English literature, was given to the senior class at their February examination. It is founded on a five weeks study of Milton's "Paradise Lost." Four books were read

' aloud in class. Subsequently, the whole of his “ Samson Agonistes and selections from other poems were read, and some attention was paid to a study of his life and times. We are using Shaw's History of English Literature. Each member of the class is furnished with a copy of specimens of English literature by the same author, and this book is used in recitation alternately with the other. In the case of Bacon, Shakespeare, and Milton, we have not been satisfied with the selections contained in this volume, but have turned aside for a somewhat more extended study of the author himself.