On the Variation of Species, with Especial Reference to the Insecta: Followed by an Inquiry into the Nature of GeneraWollaston, Thomas Vernon
Science
On the Variation of Species, with Especial Reference to the Insecta: Followed by an Inquiry into the Nature of Genera
Wollaston, Thomas Vernon
Insects; Variation (Biology)
[10] Insecta Maderensia (London, 1854), pp. 7, 8, 9.
[11] Insecta Maderensia, p. 516.
[12] Insecta Maderensia, p. 17.
[13] I possess specimens of this insect captured on the summit of
Mount Olympus by my friend E. Armitage, Esq., who is also of opinion
that it may be but a mountain state of the _C. sylvatica_, Linn.
[14] Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects (London,
1840), ii. p. 473.
[15] Id. ii. p. 158.
[16] Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, ii. p. 431.
[17] Journal of Researches, p. 238.
[18] That I may not be misunderstood by those of my readers who
conceive Madeira to be a kind of "arva beata," with the sky for ever
blue, and (as a consequence) an unclouded sun; I would repeat, that I
am not speaking of the vicinity of Funchal only (from which the
invalids, who resort thither for their health, almost exclusively draw
their deductions), but of _Madeira_,--and, more-over, of Madeira _as
it was_, and not of Madeira as it is. More or less of cultivation
during a period exceeding four centuries, in conjunction with the
overwhelming fire which completely devastated the entire south of the
island, immediately after its first settlers had taken possession of
it, and which is stated (in the accounts which are transmitted to us)
to have smouldered on for nearly seven years, have so altered the
features of the country, that it is only in the untouched regions of
the north (on which the woodman's axe is nevertheless encroaching,
season after season, with lamentable rapidity) that we can catch even
a glimpse of its pristine condition. The dense forests which then
everywhere abounded must have caused an amount of moisture and
exhalation of which even the northern districts as they now are
(though saturated, even yet, with dampness; and at a certain elevation
almost constantly enveloped with clouds) can give us but a faint idea.
So tremendous indeed must have been the aqueous accumulations which
then hung around the island, that even the splendour of a southern sun
cannot have penetrated the atmosphere as it does at present; and,
hence, the historical fact that Madeira proper (although separated by
a channel of only thirty miles in breadth, and _now_ usually visible
in bold relief against the sky, during a portion, at least, of every
day, from a far greater distance) was not discovered for _an entire
year_ after the colonization of Porto Santo, on account of the
thickness of the canopy which shrouded it from view, is at once
rendered intelligible. It is narrated, that, in the year 1419, Prince
Henry of Portugal organized an expedition to attempt the doubling of
Cape Bojador; but the commanders, having lost their reckoning, were
driven ashore on an island,--which they named Porto _Santo_, in
commemoration of their escape from the perils of the sea. "On their
return," says Mr. Harcourt, "Prince Henry sent out Zargo, Vaz, and
Pestrello, to plant a new colony in the island. It was not long before
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