186 A MIDWINTER MONTH BY THE MEDITERRANEAN. 



grew the Jersey fern i^Grammitis leotophylld). Turning in the 

 direction of the Pic du Fenouillet, I found large patches of the 

 dwarf annual daisy {Bellis annua) as much smaller than our 

 English B. perennis as the latter is smaller than B. sylvestris. 

 Near here Oxalis Libyca grew in abundance, and also Ranunculus 

 chcerophyllus. In a bank a little further on were the tall dried 

 remains of the flowering heads of Asphodelus ramosus. The path 

 next skirted the side of a hill covered with cork trees (Quercus 

 suber), and overlooking the valley of the river Gapeau. Here I 

 was fortunate enough to come upon a specimen of that gorgeous 

 beetle, Calosoma sycophantha^ the larvae of which live in the nests 

 of the Procession Caterpillars {^Cnethocampa pityocampa and pro- 

 cessionea), and do a great deal of good by consuming large numbers 

 of these destructive caterpillars. The beetle is truly magnificent, 

 its body being about i\ inches in length, and its green elytra in a 

 bright light reflecting tints of green, purple, orange, crimson, and 

 nearly every colour of the rainbow. It is considered rather a 

 rarity. There were also some fine ferns of the acute variety of 

 Asplenium adiantum-nigrwn. Returning down the castle hill, I 

 found more large nests of the trap-door spider, N. congener. The 

 sunset that evening was very brilliant. 



The following morning I walked out through the Place de la 

 Rade to the eastern end of the town. Here a good many villas 

 have been built, but these have of late years been letting badly. 

 Very soon I found a path turning up on to the hills behind, and I 

 followed along the ridge covered with cork trees, arriving finally 

 at the point where I had found the asphodels the day before. Here 

 I came upon the small leaves of an Orchis rnorio-laxiflora. 

 Climbing up a hill on the left, I saw a Red Admiral butterfly ( V. 

 atalanta) flying about, and on descending the shaly slopes the 

 other side, where the heat of the sun was most intense, there were 

 numerous grasshoppers of different sizes and colours jumping and 

 flying about. One, CEdipoda ccerulescens, with its deep-blue wings 

 tipped with black ; another species with delicate wings tinged with 

 pale blue ; and a third, Acridium tartaricum, with a wing expanse 

 of about 2 1 inches, the wings tinged with lemon yellow, especially 

 at their base. There were also a good many dried " earth-stars " 

 (a fungus of the genus Geaster) about loose on the hillside. I 



