50 ON THE LUMINOSITY 



and here his evidence is invaluable, because //<?, a naturalist, 

 expressly declares the Jire-fly of India (mark that, gentlemen,) 

 to be a Lampyris, and not a Fulgora. " While sitting," says 

 Forbes, "at his tent-door after supper, reviewing his late 

 negociations at Poonah, he perceived the dark side of the grove 

 illuminated by thousands of fire-flies flitting among the 

 branches, and shining with a brilliancy of which the faint light 

 of the European glow-worm gives but little idea. Those who 

 have travelled in Italy during the summer months, and have 

 there seen the Lampyris, or Lucciola, although not so nu- 

 merous as in the Asiatic woods, can easily conceive the noc- 

 turnal splendour of these insects in the torrid zone." And in 

 another place, — " Especially the Lampyris, or fire-flies, which 

 glitter by thousands in the dark recesses of the banian tree, 

 and in perpetual motion on the extremities of the feathery 

 branches of the gracefully waving tamarind, produce a singular 

 and brilliant effect." The female of these appears to be 

 generally without wings, like our own glow-worm. I recollect 

 Mrs. Heber, in her narrative of the Bishop's tour in Ceylon, 

 after elegantly describing the wandering fire-flies, she says, 

 " I also saw glow-worms on the ground, just like our English 

 ones, but larger, and more brilliant." These were evidently the 

 females of the flying ones, which entered her palanquin, and 

 made her start every time they lighted on her muslin dress. 

 This reminds me of the tasteful practice in the East, of the 

 swains adorning their favourite ladies with these shining crea- 

 tures, which, Smith says, is also done in Italy. 



But I am dwelling too long on the Old World, which is to 

 me a weary world ; my hopes, and wishes, and thoughts, are 

 turned entirely on the Neiv, where primaeval forests wave their 

 glorious arms, and mighty rivers, broad as seas, pour their 

 resistless waters into the Atlantic. America, thou country of 

 my dreams, when shall I see thee ? 



" O that fhy deserts were my dwelling place !" 



The fire flies of America are both Lampyrites and Elaterites ; 

 the latter are the most brilliant, and in the greatest abundance. 

 No writer on that lovely country has forgotten to mention 

 them. Prince Maximilian, in his Brazil, does not, as far as 

 I recollect, once mention the Fulgorcs y but he continually 

 alludes to the brilliancy of the fire-flies, and always adds, 



