Insects* 249 



a stranger tapped at my window for admittance, which was 

 instantly granted : he proved to be a male Amphldasis pilo- 

 saria Fr. whose perfect condition left no doubt of his having 

 burst from his chrysalis since the morning. It is true his near 

 affinity to Hibernia and other brumal phalaenas might induce 

 us to look for him in cold weather ; but Duponchel assigns 

 March and April for the period of his appearance in the 

 climate of Paris, certainly not earlier than Gonepteryx and 

 Vanessa are admitted to quit their pupae. The second case 

 was the exclusion of a male Vanessa To on the 23d February, 

 from a chrysalis which had undergone its transformation in a 

 loft on my premises, and which had been left completely un- 

 disturbed and untouched, to proceed in its regular course. 

 . In Vol. III. p. 243., Mr. Bree speaks of the 18th March as 

 the earliest date at which he ever knew a Papilio issue from 

 the chrysalis, [for dates of early appearances, though not from 

 the chrysalis, see V. 595., VI. 88. 176.]; and I attribute their 

 precocity in Switzerland to the increased excitability which 

 seems to be the common result of severe and long-continued 

 cold, occasioning the almost magic transition from " thick- 

 ribbed ice" to verdure and flowers, which is represented to 

 take place in Lapland, Russia, and America. Every writer 

 on Switzerland has noticed 



The Proximity of the Alpine Flowers to the eternal Snows and 

 Glaciers ; and as the snow next to the ground most usually 

 melts the first, at least when the bed is of considerable thick- 

 ness, it is not rare to see some of the hardiest and earliest 

 blowing plants in full bloom, under a projecting canopy of 

 frozen snow which constantly drenches them with an icy 

 shower. The most beautiful effect I remember to have seen, 

 was upon the Faulhorn, in the month of July, 1824. Between 

 the spot where visiters who ascend on horseback quit their 

 saddles, and the foot of the highest slope, was a bed of snow 

 of about a quarter of an acre, quite hard, but not more than 

 half a foot thick; a few days before my visit, a horse had 

 crossed this bed, and on each spot where he had stepped, the 

 snow had disappeared, leaving a succession of circles about 

 6 in. in diameter, which were literally filled with flowers of 

 all hues, but scarcely one reaching to the level of the surface 

 of the surrounding snow. — J. P, Brown. Thun, Switzerland, 

 April 5. 1833. 



Had not some of these been in flower actually under, and 

 while covered by, the snow ? Mr. Dennis, nurseryman, 

 Chelsea, has found that the species of Primula, of Cyclamen, 

 of Orchideae, of Pelargonium of the Ciconium or horse-shoe 

 group, and a yellow-coroUaed Pingulcula from the United 



