Botany, 



n 



gentleman in whose cabinet I observed it. Both this gentleman and the 

 collector, who is a very deserving and honest man, are now satisfied they 

 have been grossly imposed upon. 



I cannot but express my unqualified detestation of all such attempts 

 at imposition, from whatever motives they may arise; but especially in 

 this instance, in which I have reason to believe the design of the parties 

 was utterly unworthy of men professing the slightest regard for science 

 I am. Sir, yours, &c. — A. H. Davis. London, Sept. 19. 1831. 



Ravages of Cetonia hirta of Scopoli and Fabridus. — Sir, In some re- 

 marks on the Cetoniae, in the 94th number of British Entomologyy I 

 alluded to a letter addressed to the Horticultural Society of London, on 

 the subject of the ravages of a species of Cetonia, an extract from which 

 letter was transmitted to me, with specimens of the insect, for my opinion 

 respecting the species j and, as I regretted not being able to subjoin this 

 account to my observations, I hope you will do me the favour to give it a 

 place in your Magazine. 



Mr. St. John says, " And a gentleman [the Cetonia hirta Scop, and 

 Fab.] which the Maltese call BouzufF, and the English inhabitants the 

 Botany Bay, after he has filled himself, retires under ground till the March 

 apricot blossoms, when he emerges ; and I am for two months obliged to 

 have people employed solely to pick him off the blossoms, of which he 

 readily eats the nectary ; and, having eaten one, he goes to the next. He is 

 very active, and flies like a bee. When the roses are in blossom, these 

 beasts are so fond of them, that you may take twenty out of one flower, 

 and in ten minutes as many more. A dark-coloured flower they never 

 touch. I don't think he is known in cold climates." 



The beetle above alluded to by Mr. St. John is very similar in size and 

 <jolour to the Cetonia stictica figured in British Entomology (pi. 374.) ; but 

 it is duller and more hairy, and appears to me to be the Cetonia hirta of 

 Scopoli and Fabricius, which is found as far to the north as Paris. I am, 

 Sir, yours, &c. — John Curtis. Grove Place y Sept. 1831. 



Art. n. Botany. 



A VARIETY of the common Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris). — Su', I have on 

 three or four different occasions met with a variety of the common ground- 

 sel (^Venecio vulgaris), which I do not find noticed in our English Floras. 

 The florets, invested by the pappus, seem to be unnaturally protruded be- 

 yond the summit of the involucrum. This appearance reminds one of the 

 female flowers of Gnaphalium dioicum, and Tussilago Petasites. Having 

 found a specimen of this variety three days ago 

 near St. Albans, I send you a drawing of its in- 

 florescence (^g. 35.). a and b represent two 

 , states of the capitulum, of the natural size, and c is 

 'ja magnified floret. One striking deviation in this 

 variety from the ordinary character of the plant, 

 consists in the considerable exsertion of the stigma 

 beyond the anthers and far beyond the corolla, 

 arising from the elongation of the style; whereas 

 the stigma is in general scarcely, if at all, protruded. 

 Smith, in the English Flora (vol. iii. p. 428.), makes 

 it a generic character of iS'enecio, that the style is 

 " the length of the stamens," whose anthers, how- 

 ever, are not always, as in the present variety, 

 wholly within the corolla. Another anomaly in 

 the florets of this variety consists in the length of 

 the ovai-ium ; being twice that which it has in the 

 G 4 



