163 



pursue the same plan there. In the woods there are some- 

 times swarms of particular species. One boy counted seventy- 

 specimens of Gloea vaccina on one tree. My brother finds that 

 coarse, strong-smelling sugar is to be preferred, and he generally 

 puts a moderate quantity into a pan of water, and brushes it on 

 with a large paint-brusli just after sunset. I think you would 

 succeed in this way in getting a great many moths. I wish I 

 had tried it in East Florida and at Trenton Falls. In summer 

 the blossoms of the lime-tree swarm with Noctuce. ' We used 

 to take a sheet and spread it on the ground under the trees, 

 and strike them sharply. This would sometimes shake down 

 forty or fifty moths at a stroke. Now the blossoms of the 

 common Ivy (^Hedera helix), which is just flowering, swarm 

 with moths. By attention to these various modes of collecting, 

 we have made our vicinity unrivalled as to the number of Lep- 

 idoptera collected in it. 



Should I go merely for a short visit to France I mean to take 

 a host of things for Boisduval's inspection. Especially your 

 Theclce and Hesperice. This reminds me of a "blue " I have de- 

 scribed as Polyommatus Lygdamus, one of Abbot's. I told you 

 about it. I find there are two species like Argiolus in America. 

 I caught both, but only females of the Northern one. They 

 have males from Nova Scotia in the Museum. It is clearly 

 distinct from what I took in Carolina. 



DOUBLEDAY TO HARRIS. 



10 NewIngton Crescent, April 30, 1842, 



I have not time to follow you in your remarks on the Noto- 

 dontians now, but will soon write you more fully on the sub- 

 ject. I will, however, remark on a few of them, and on some 

 of the others. 



