34 [February, 



behind the town ; it is the nearest and most attractive ground, and 

 one where the As[)hodel would first attract attention. Here Milliere 

 could find no fl. Jiyerana. I submit that the reason was that at that 

 date it did not exist there. He proceeds - 



" Yet, when I got to the top of a little hill lying between the 

 town and the arm of the sea which separates the ' lies d'Hyeres ' 

 from the continent, I met, at a place called I'Ermitage, with a further 

 large quantity of this elegant lily so pleasing to the sight. I quickly 

 observed several stems pierced near their summits, &c." 



As soon as he examined a locality where liyerana actually existed 

 he found it at once. Knowing the ground and species as I do, I cannot 

 for a moment believe that Milliere could have missed the insect on 

 the Maurettes had it been there, and there is in my mind no doubt 

 that the Maurettes was the district over which he failed to find it. 

 It is difiicult, indeed impossible, to suggest any other place where he 

 could spend " the long hours " during which he says he searched in 

 vain. 



Now the Hermitage, better known now as Costebelle, is an outlier 

 of the Plage (shore) area, and is separated from the Maurettes by 

 nearly two miles. 



My view is that H. hyerana had not very long before (10, 20, 30 

 years ?) reached La Plage and w^ts now well established there, but 

 had not yet succeeded in crossing over to the Maurettes, which it did 

 shortly after, either directly or by a route much longer, but possibly 

 with shorter gaps, via Bormette and the Maures mountains. On 

 reaching the Maurettes, or probably on x'eaching the Maures, if it 

 came that way (it may, if so, have been on the way at Milliere's date), 

 melanism appeared, and was found so useful that it reached its present 

 high percentage. 



I am indebted to Mr. Raine and Mr. Powell for some detailed 

 information about the distribution of Asphodel at Hyeres, which ex- 

 tends my more limited knowledge, and entirely confirms the picture I 

 had, on fewer data, formed of it. 



I have made a rough map of the vicinity of Hyeres, in order to 

 show the relations to each other of the " La Plage " and " Les 

 Maurettes " localities of liyerana, the position of Milliere's locality 

 " I'Ermitage," and their relation to the probable range of the insect 

 at Hyeres, which is very much the area of Asphodelus microcarpus 

 there. 



