HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE - G OSSIP. 



29 



things we wanted. After passing through Boldre- 

 wood Hall Park we emerged on a dreary moor, which 

 description of land seems to divide the Forest equally 

 with the actual trees. From Stoney Cross, the other 

 side this heath, the view is most extensive, stretching 

 far away in every direction over long sweeps of forest 

 and moorland ; in fact, this is the finest view of the 

 Forest as a whole in the district. Nor should the 

 visitor to this spot forget to turn aside to the stone of 

 Rufus, placed on the spot where tradition says the 

 Nemesis overtook the Red Kinc for the sins of his 



Fig. 29. White Ad1nir.1I. Under .Side. 



Fig. 30. The Ringlet I^Epinef>hele hypcranthiis]. Upper Side. 



/ 



- 1* ^1 



Fig. 31. The Ringlet (JEpinepJiele liypo-anthus). Lower Side. 



father, and now enclosed in an iron case bearing 

 appropriate inscriptions on each side. 



The way back to Lyndhurst led through Minstead ; 

 but it being late in the afternoon, no more sport 

 could be expected. Sugar that night was little better 

 than before ; three Fyrainidic and a few other com- 

 mon Noctua completed the list, and the last hope of 

 the red underwings vanished away. Alas ! the 

 golden days of sugaring for the Catocalidir, as Mr. 

 Anderson describes, seem to have departed for ever. 

 Indeed, sugar seemed quite to fail us for the whole 

 time we were out. The next day being very wet, 

 finished our campaign, and we left the Forest with 

 as much regret as our lodgings with delight, and 



betook ourselves to a fresh locality, only envious of 

 those who lived near enough to the New Forest to 

 be able to make its glades a frequent resort. For 

 those who would really study the entomology of this 

 forest a short stay is nearly useless, as different 

 species come out at different periods all the year 

 round, and of course any systematic beating or 

 sweeping for larva? is impossible in a hurried holiday. 

 Yet he must be sadly lacking in perception of the 

 manifold riches of Nature, whether artist, entomo- 

 logist, ornithologist, botanist, or antiquary, who 

 cannot find some new objects of study or acquisition 

 even in the shortest stay in this vastest and grandest 

 of the forests of England. W. E. S. 



AN EARLY SUMMER RAMBLE ON THE 



EAST COAST OF KENT IN 1876. 



By Dr. E. de Crespigxy. 



THE aspect of the deserted quays and promenades 

 of a gay place of resort in early summer re- 

 minds one of the dreary desolation of a banqueting- 

 hall on the morning following a revel. The "high 

 jinks " for which the watering-places of Thanet are so 

 renowned " in the season" are not as yet. Boatmen 

 idle about the doors of the hotels which face the little 

 harbour ; shopkeepers eye you as you pass with sullen 

 listless looks, and there is hardly a lodging-house but 

 is garnished with a notice in the windows that the 

 apartments are to let. Not a soul upon the sands but 

 the shrimper trudging homewards "his weary way." 

 There is, however, no lack of life out at sea in the off- 

 ing ; steamers, with or without a sailing craft in tow, 

 pass up and down the Channel between " the Good- 

 wins " and the shore in scores, to and from all parts 

 of the world south of the Downs ; but the naturalist, 

 of whatever department of his subject a student, is 

 nowhere and at no time at a loss for amusement, and 

 a botanist visiting this part of the Kentish coast, even 

 in June, may count upon adding many an uncommon 

 plant to his herbarium. 



The coast of Thanet fronting the Straits is remark- 

 able for its perpendicular chalk cliffs, which do not, 

 except at one or two points, exceed two hundred feet 

 in altitude. They extend from near Margate to a 

 little below Ramsgate. On these cliffs grow. Beta 

 maritinia, Cheiranthiis Chciri, Centhranthus ruber, 

 Diplotaxis tentiifoUa, Parictaria diffusa, Statice spathu- 

 lata (not in flower). The country above is open and 

 level, consisting of chalky corn-fields, almost treeless. 

 The few small copses en evidence are carefully walled 

 or fenced in : hedges there are none. Of constant 

 occurrence, both in 'the cultivated fields and by the 

 roadsides, is Lcpidium Draha, so abundant as to form 

 a characteristic production : it is known to the country 

 people as "Thomson's weed," and looked upon by 

 the farmers as a great pest, spreading everywhere 

 with much rapidity. Scandix pecten- Ve/ieris and 



