130 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



the mistletoe which all of the trees here have borne for so many years 

 past. 



Soon after leaving the station the roadside hedge, where ivy 

 and holly mingle, was dotted here and there with the males of C. 

 arf/ioliis, either flitting or settling. Strangely there were uo females, 

 nor did I see any on my return in the late afternoon, although some of 

 the males were worn. 



Continuing along the road, after securing some half a dozen of the 

 " blues," the ruins of the old pilgrims' church was passed, near which, 

 years ago, quite by chance, I picked two or three Roman snails, Helix 

 poiiiatia, for a friend, and met with one having its whorl left-handed. 

 Along the roadside grows plenty of the delicate celandine, Chdiihiiinm 

 mojus, on which one can usually find a species of the beautiful dusty- 

 wing Ehyncophorid Alei/rodes. It was close here, too, that several 

 times an adder has been met with curled up basking in the sun. Pasta 

 wood and deserted chalk pit, where later on plenty of Geometers may 

 be met with, the road runs between open fields, usually under cultiva- 

 tion, and produces as a rule at this time of the year Enchloi' carda- 

 mines and Gonepten/.r r/ia)iini. However, on this occasion only the 

 latter turned up, and evidently the former was not yet generally out, as 

 none of the orange-coloured eggs were to be found on the Sisi/Dibrhini: 

 I'Ificinalix, which grows so abundantly along the hedgerows. 



On reaching Bagden Farm the road was left and the unfrequented 

 footpath leading through the fields and woods to Ranmore was taken. 

 Under the adjacent elms there was plenty of the flower-spikes of the 

 toothwort, Latliraea aquawaria. This spot is hallowed ground to the 

 lover of nature, for here more than three hundred years ago our illus- 

 trious countr3'man, John Ray, found and recorded the occurrence of 

 this uncommon saprophyte on the roots of the elm. The path leads 

 into a short valley, partly ploughed up and partly covered by rough 

 growth and a few birch, privet, hawthorn, rose, etc., bushes. This is 

 a capital hunting ground both for insects and flowers, but to-day of 

 the former only. Vanessa in in some number were met with. If a 

 search had been made on the tree-trunks of the adjacent woods no 

 doubt the beautiful green Tortrix literana would have turned up, and 

 later on Hainearis lucina, Staiiropns fagi, Brenthis eiiplirosyne, etc. 

 Instead of continuing up the valley, which leads to the well-known 

 post-office tea-house, a return was made to the path beneath the big 

 tree at the right hand side, where grows abundance of the large tutsan, 

 Hypericum aiidrosaein it in . 



A long walk through the beautiful woods on the northern slope of 

 the common brought me to a lonely house known as Tanners Hatch 

 on the path leading from Bookham past Polesden Lacy, eastern side. 

 Here among low herbage was a large and thickly clustered patch of the 

 lady's-smock Cardamiue pratense, on one flower of which hung a 

 Li. rliaiinii. About this spot in years past I have taken rarari/e aee/cria, 

 but apparently this beautiful species has strangely gone from this as well 

 as from many other of its near-London habitats during the last twenty 

 years. The woods were seemingly very bare of Lepidoptera, for nO' 

 signs were seen on the fair number of trunks examined, and nothing 

 was stirred from the undergrowth or rubbish. Later on plenty of 

 Drepana inujtricida may be beaten from the overhanging beeches which 

 grow so luxuriantly on this slope. 



