THE LA RUE HOLMES NATURE LOVERS LEAGUE. 



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H The La Rue Holmes Nature Lovers League i 



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By George Klingle, Summit, New Jersey 



Explanation;- The aim of this League are in many respects the same as The Agassiz Association. Therefore 

 it has been proposed that the adult interests be represented by "The Cuide to Nature" and that the League co-oper- 

 ate, orpossibly be affiliated, with The Agassiz Association. — E. F. B. 



Ten addresses were given to the 

 various Chapters during- the month of 

 May. 



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Leaflets concerning wild flower pro- 

 tection were distributed in three 

 school chapters during May; leaflets 

 on bird protection, in one school chap- 

 ter and one home chapter. 



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The L. H. Nature League Chapters 

 organized during the past month are : 

 The Bright Eyes Chapter, Madison, 

 New Jersey ; The Madison Library 

 Boys' Club Chapter ; The Morristown 

 School Chapter. 



Trailing Arbutus. 



Our member, Mrs. L. F. Brown, of 

 Morristown, N. J., in an interesting 

 wild flower census, gives trailing arbu- 

 tus as being found in Morristown ; we 

 have no other record of it in this vicin- 

 ity, and would be glad to hear from 

 others as to its existing elsewhere in, 

 this section. 



The arbutus is a much abused form 

 of nature's riches. Where it yet lin- 

 gers the despoiling hands of the' 

 thoughtless are rapidly exterminating 

 it, as at Lakewood, N. J, where it has 

 given pleasure to so many who have 

 been content to enjoy its beauty with- 

 out curtailing it. 



If the sale of arbutus, as well as 

 gentians, pipsissewa and other rapidly 

 disappearing forms of plant-life, w r ere 

 met by the determination of flower- 

 lovers, to purchase no wild bloom 

 whatever of flower-venders or florists, 

 a prolific source of destruction would 

 soon cease to exist. 



Personal Observation. 



BY B. S. BOWDISH, SOUTH ORANGE, N. J. 



A key note to nature study, and one 

 that the great naturalist and teacher, 

 Agassiz always showed his apprecia- 



tion of, is personal observation, inde- 

 pendent investigation. The tasks that 

 this greatest of nature teachers set his 

 pupils were such as would best develop 

 the faculties of seeing and hearing for 

 themselves. 



What we discover by our own orig- 

 inal investigation is more sure to be 

 retained in our memory and to do us 

 a greater amount of good than what 

 we obtain at second hand from the 

 studies of others. 



I remember during the early stages 

 of my interest in insect life, an occa- 

 sion when I found several of the 

 larvae of the Common Eastern Swal- 

 lowtail Butterfly, Papilio aesterias, 

 feeding on carraway leaves. At that 

 time the mature insect was not known 

 to me by name, nor did I have the 

 slightest idea what sort of appearing 

 butterfly should be expected from the 

 larvae in hand, but I placed them in a 

 box with a mosquito bar over the top, 

 furnished them with their natural 

 food, and placed the box in a cool posi- 

 tion, while I awaited results. After 

 my captives assumed the pupa stage I 

 did not consider it necessary to keep 

 the mosquito bar over a hole about 

 half an inch in diameter in one side 

 of the box, as surely the butterflies 

 could not escape from this small aper- 

 ture. One morning when I inspected 

 the prison of my three quiet captives 

 I found I had two strange additions 

 to the population, in the shape of 

 slender, tawny reddish ichneuman flies 

 which eventually proved to be 7*rogus 

 epssorius Brnllc. Further investiga- 

 tion showed a neat round hole in the 

 side of each of two of my pupae, and 

 I promptly developed a suspicion as 

 to the character of the ichneuman flies 

 which subsequent recourse to the au- 

 thorities proved correct. 



Later the remaining pupa split its 

 skin to allow an aesterias to escape. 



