1885.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 181 



liquid on the transformation of large chrysalides into the but- 

 terfly state. The drops produced red stains on the walls of 

 the small villages in the neighborhood, on stones in the high- 

 ways, and in the fields. The number of butterflies flying 

 about, too, was prodigious." The writer of this account says : 

 " On one occasion twenty-eight chrysalides of Vanessa Antiopa, 

 or Camberwell Beauty, which I had preserved in a small room, 

 attached to projecting bodies, underwent transformation on a 

 single day in July. The walls and floor were so bespattered 

 with bright crimson-colored fluid, resembling blood, as to give 

 the appearance of a regular shower of the fluid." Figuier, in 

 his " Insect World," describes the same phenomenon at some 

 length, and quotes (p. 188) Reaumur as saying of the large 

 Tortoise-shell butterfly : " Thousands change into pupae to- 

 wards the end of May or the beginning of June. Before their 

 transformation they leave the trees, often fastening themselves 

 to walls ; and, making their way into country houses, they 

 suspend themselves to the frames of doors, etc. If the but- 

 terflies which come out of them towards the end of June or 

 the beginning of July were all to fly together, there would 

 be enough of them to form little clouds or swarms, and con- 

 sequently there would be enough to cover the stones in cer- 

 tain localities with spots of a blood-red color, and to make 

 those who only seek to terrify themselves and to see prodi- 

 gies in everything, believe that during the night it had rained 

 blood." 



12. " The Red Snow,'' says Dr. Carpenter, "which sometimes 

 colors extensive tracts in Arctic or Alpine regions, penetrat- 

 ing even to the depth of several feet, and vegetating actively 

 at a temperature which reduces most plants to a state of 

 torpor, is generally considered to be a species of Protococcus ; 

 but as its cells are connected by a tolerably firm gelatinous 

 investment, it would rather seem to be a Palmella." 



13. Showers of Flesh are well exemplified by the so-called 

 " meat-shower " which occurred in Kentucky in 1875, as most 

 of us well remember. At the time, it caused almost as much 

 ignorant wonder and gave rise to nearly as many nonsensical 

 notions as it would have done hundreds of years ago. The 

 first attempts at accounting for the marvel attributed it to a 

 mysterious fall of Nostoc, but careful microscopical examina- 



