HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



169 



BOTANISING IN THE ITALIAN ALPS. 



'DAY or two after 

 I had gathered 

 the specimens of 

 C. ensifolia, re- 

 ferred to in 

 Science -Gossip 

 for April, p. 92, 

 I made an excur- 

 sion up the Val 

 d'Esino, in the 

 rocky gorges of 

 the lower end of 

 which Pteris cre- 

 tica is said to 

 occur, though I 

 was unable to 

 find it there. It 

 does, however, 

 grow, and in 

 some abundance, 

 on the banks of a 

 small stream behind Cadenabbia, on the opposite 

 side of the lake ; but as I only ascertained this fact 

 the day before I left Lake Como, I had not the good 

 fortune to see that rare fern in situ. 



There are two paths which run up the valley from 

 Varenna to Esino Inferiore, at which place they unite, 

 and the path runs thence to the top of the mountain 

 ridge which separates Val d'Esino from Val Sassina, 

 so celebrated for the richness of its flora. 



Taking advantage of the first fine morning — for we 

 had wretched weather most of the time we were at 

 Varenna — I took the road which leads to the well- 

 known Fiume de Latte, passing, as I left the town of 

 Varenna, a garden in which there are a number of 

 large trees of oleander with stems a foot and more 

 in diameter. I was afterwards informed by an 

 Englishman who lives on the spot that the Oleander 

 hawk moth (Nerii) occurs there annually, and that 

 the gardener at a neighbouring villa found as many 

 as eighteen to twenty pupre in the autumn of 1888. 

 One of these, which failed to produce an imago, is 

 now in my possession. 



No. 308. — August 1890. 



Soon after getting out of the town there is, on the 

 lefty a rather steep and rough path which leads up to 

 the well-known ruin dominating Varenna, and known 

 as the Torre di Vezio. This path, though rough and 

 steep, saves a considerable detour, and, besides that, 

 it lies exposed to the sun, and is therefore a better 

 hunting-ground for insects. 



On my way up to the ruin I took some very fresh 

 specimens of a, pretty and distinct little blue butter- 

 fly, which I have never met with elsewhere, and 

 which I have not as yet been able to identify ; and 

 several fine examples of a species of that curious 

 family of insects, the Myrmeleonidfe, or ant lions, 

 which look like a cross between a butterfly and a 

 dragon-fly. 



These were flying about in a spasmodic kind of 

 way. I mistook the first one I saw for a worn and 

 damaged specimen of P. machaon. Several hyales 

 were flying about on the same spot, and, unless my 

 eyes deceived me, one of the ant lions attempted to 

 capture one of these, though it failed to do so. I 

 found, too, on a little grass slope, fine examples of 

 Ophrys muscifera and aranifera, but I could not find 

 the Fraxinella or Lilium bulbifenim, though I had 

 seen both these fine flowers in abundance at a spot 

 only a few hundred yards away a day or two 

 before. 



Just near the Torre di Vezio I observed a small 

 patch of lily of the valley, but it is not abundant 

 hereabouts, though it occurs in profusion on Monte 

 Generoso, on the opposite side. 



Leaving the ruined tower on the left, I got down 

 as soon as possible to the stream which runs at the 

 bottom of the valley (d'Esino), but there was no sign 

 of cretica, and I therefore again took to the path, 

 which here ran through vineyards and gardens in a 

 sort of zigzag fashion. Here I saw machaon, poda- 

 lirius, hyale, and semiargus, and obtained two or 

 three fine males of the last, the first that I had ever 

 seen alive. 



Just above this spot lies the village of Regolo, and 

 a little further on is Perledo, through the main streets 

 of which the path ascends. Picturesque as these 



