LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 271 



house ; and moreover had a door into a piazza, where I could 

 sit and skin a bird, or fish, and watch the Pelopcei building 

 their clay nests. At the back of the house was a hill, or 

 rather an elevated ridge of land, continued from the southern 

 side of the bluff, and bordering the shore for a considerable 

 distance, separating the low tract next the river from the 

 pine-barrens behind. This was entirely a hammock, that is 

 to say, originally a wood of other trees than pines. In Flo- 

 rida, the term hammock lands is applied to lands that are or 

 have been covered with hard-wooded trees, as oaks, sweet- 

 gum, hickory, &c. ; the term pine-barren, of course, belongs 

 to the low barren pine-covered tracts, though these are often 

 not so barren as their name or appearance w^ould lead us to 

 believe ; swamps are generally distinguished as cypress- 

 swamps, where the chief growth is Cupressus disticha and 

 bay-galls ; where the growth is chiefly Lauri and Gordonice, 

 the latter are mostly near to the rivers. At the back of the 

 house, then, we had a hammock, composed of live oaks 

 (Quercus virens), willow oaks [Quercus Phellos), and other 

 species, hickory {Carya'^), chinquapin {Castanea pumila), 

 sweet gum [Liquidambar styraciflua), beneath which was 

 an undergrowth of Olea Americana, Hopea tinctoria, Force - 

 lia pygmcea, Ptelea trifoliata, Hamamelis Viryinica, and a 

 variety of beautiful AndromedcB and Vaccinia, intermingled 

 with sweet bays and other shrubs, and a few young or 

 stunted plants of the tall palmetto. Bignonia capreolata, 

 Lonicera sempervirens, and Gelseminum nitidum were com- 

 mon here; Big^ionia radicans was more rare. Amongst the 

 bushes Cactus Opuntia abounded in every sunny spot; its 

 large golden flowers were the favourite resort of Trichius 

 piger f and one or two Lepturm. Flowers were not nume- 

 rous here, though there were a few rather interesting species, 

 I had omitted to mention the luxuriant vines of two or more 

 species which overspread the bushes, one species having 

 flowers as fragrant as the mignionette of our gardens; neither 

 have I said a word of the various species of Smilax annoy- 

 ingly common here. 



There were various paths through this hammock, though 

 many nearly grown up, but my cutlass soon opened these, 

 and gave us a freer range. At the back of this hammock 

 was a large pond, abounding in water lilies and other aqua- 

 tic plants, especially a beautiful Eriocaulon. This pond 

 abounded, too, in aquatic Coleoptera, especially in February, 

 for after that month they became less numerous : dragon- 



' Not having seen tlie fruit, I cannot say which species they were. 



