STUDY XI. 265 



flower of the nafturtium, or nun, which is a native 

 of the fame country, emits, in the dark, a phof- 

 phoric light, obferved, for the firft time, in Eu- 

 rope, by a daughter of the celebrated Linnauu 



The properties of thefe plants convey a happy 

 idea of thofe delightful climates, in which the 

 nights are fufficiently calm, and fufficiently lumi- 

 nous to difclofe a new order of fociety among ani- 

 mals. Nay, there are infects which fland in no 

 need of any pharos to affift them in {leering their 

 nocturnal courfes. They carry their lanterns about 

 them ; fuch are the fpecies of luminous flies. They 

 fcatter themfelves, fometimes, in the groves of 

 orange-trees, of papayas, and other fruit-trees, in 

 the midft of the darkeft night. They dart, at 

 once, by feveral reiterated beatings of their wings, 

 a dozen of fiery ftreams, which illuminate the fo- 

 liage and fruits of the trees whereon they fettle, 

 with a golden and bluiih light * ; then, all at once 

 reprefling their motion, they plunge again into ob- 

 fcurity. They alternately refume and intermit 

 this fport during the whole night. Sometimes there 

 are detached from them fwarms of brilliant fparks 

 of light, which rife into the air, like the emana- 

 tions of a firework. 



* Confult the fame Work of du Tertre. 



Were 



