2 54 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



G. H. Bryan. 



went to Baden and Heidelberg. I have collected a 

 number of insects here, and find it altogether an 

 excellent locality. This year there was a quantity 

 of Vanessa prorsa, a butterfly remarkable for being 

 dimorphic ; the spring brood is different from the 

 autumn one. The same is the case with Antkocharis 

 Belia, found in the South of France. 



I also found Melitea didyma, Lyca-na Amyntas, 

 Polyommatics Dorilus, Scsia ensiformis and culici- 

 formis, Zygcena Carniolica and Peucedani, Calli- 

 morpha Hera, Ocneria dispar, Lythria purpuraria, 

 Acherontia Atropos, Bombyx qnercus, quercifolia, and 

 monacha, Catocala fraxini, besides most of the 

 "British" butterflies, and a host of fritillaries— but 

 of course a great deal is dependent on whether it is 

 a good season for insects or not. Thus, in 1877, 

 Lathonia occurred in profusion; also, more or less, in 

 1878 ; this year not a specimen was to be seen. 

 Similarly with Limenitis Sibylla, Euchelia jacobea, 

 and many others. Pieris Daplidice is rare at Heidel- 

 berg. I caught one specimen on the towing-path in 

 1878. I did not see Vanessa prorsa till this year 

 (1880)— but in other respects it has been a very bad 

 year for insects at Heidelberg— hardly a specimen of 

 Argynnis Paphia, where a few were seen in 1878, 

 and where it swarmed in 1877. I was not there in 

 1879 at all, so I do not know whether it was a good 

 season or not. 



Heidelberg is also good in Diptera ; some rare 

 species of Oestrus and Phasia, C/irysops marmoratus 

 in abundance by the river, besides a number of 

 Conopidae, Anthraxes, Argyromolbas, and others have 

 been found ; also a good many Coleoptera. Curiously 

 enough Geotrupes sylvatiais is seen everywhere, while 

 G. vernalis and stercorarius are conspicuous by their 

 absence. 



We had arrived too late for most of the flowers, 

 nevertheless we found the remains of Pyrola minor 

 and Monotropa Hypopitys, besides DiantJms snperbus, 

 Armeria and Carthusiajiorum, Prenanthes purpurea, 

 Gnaphalium sylvaticum and luieo - album, Jasione 

 montana. Other years we have found Spiranthes 

 autumnalis and Parnassia pa lustris. We also found 

 Impatiens noli-me-tangere, Melampyrum pratense 

 <every where), and the remains of Cytisus sagittalis 

 and Convallaria majalis. 



One day we took the train to Eberbach and as- 

 cended the Katzenbuckel. It is the highest hill in the 

 Odenwald, and consists mainly of the red sandstone, 

 but the top is formed of a heavy volcanic stone called 

 Dolerite. By the end of August there was almost 

 an entire absence of insects at Heidelberg. We left 

 there on the 30th, and the night we crossed the sea 

 was most beautifully phosphorescent. We arrived 

 at Cambridge on the 1st of September, and to my 

 great astonishment, I find a greater number of insects 

 here now than there were when I left for Germany. 



WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR NAMES. 



FH. Hn. asks for information as to "the best 

 • method of discovering the names of flowers 

 which one may meet with and be able to recognise." 

 Bentham's "Handbook of the British Flora" is 

 generally recommended for this purpose, but F. H. 

 Hn. says it is "a somewhat expensive work." On 

 turning to his reference (page 184 of vol. xv. of 

 Science-Gossip), I find he is alluding to the 

 illustrated edition in two volumes, which, published 

 at £3 10s -> can, as there stated, "now be obtained 

 at a reduced price." I gave 30J. for my copy. The 

 illustrated one volume edition, is, however, the 

 handier work, and is published at 12s. With the 

 assistance of this book, the beginner may find the 

 names of most of our wild flowers, though he will 

 probably often fail to do so in the more difficult 

 orders, as the Umbelliferre and the sedges and 

 grasses. Sir J. D. Hooker does not approve of 

 artificial keys, but admits the necessity for them 

 to some extent. In the preface to the "Student's 

 Flora of the British Islands," he says : " The keys to 

 the genera are naturally arranged, but in Umbelliferse 

 I have added an artificial key, as essential for the 

 determination of a genus before the whole order has 

 been studied. I have added no keys to the species, 

 preferring curt diagnoses which embrace the more 

 important characters of the plant ; finding, morever, 

 from experience, that such keys promote very super- 

 ficial habits among students ! " This work, however, 

 is not specially designed for mere beginners. 



F. H. Hn. mentions three plans by which the 

 tyro may possibly learn the name of a wild flower, 

 but does not notice two others which for my part I 

 think are good ones if others fail ; I mean pictures, 

 or having it told him. It may be objected that these 

 are not scientific plans, but the same may be said of 

 artificial keys, and he must be something more than a 

 beginner who can trace a plant out in a strictly 

 scientific manner. It is plain that even to use an 

 artificial key like Bentham's requires previous study, 

 and to make anything at all out of the species of the 

 more difficult orders requires more than a little, 

 while to determine many critical forms (not enlarged 

 on by Bentham) calls for all the knowledge and 

 experience of our best botanists. As to the method 

 of investigation, very much must therefore depend 

 upon what exactly is wanted, upon the amount of 

 interest taken in the subject, and the extent to which 

 any one may wish to pursue it. 



It has often been said that the Linnaean system is 

 easier by far for the purpose of finding out the name 

 of a plant than the modern system, and this may be 

 the case at first, but could scarcely be so for long, 

 because it requires us to associate plants together 

 in groups, the members of which, excepting in a 

 few instances (as Tetradynamia = Cruciferas, and 



