CHAPTER V. 



APRIL. 



Few living creatures deserve so well the uppel- 

 lation of "beautiful" as the Floscniaria ornata^ 

 or Beautiful Floscule, although to contemplate a 

 motionless and uncoloured portrait, one would 

 imagine that it exhibited no graces of either colour 

 or form. Mr. Gosse lias, however, done it justice, 

 and the drawing in his ''Tenby" is executed with 

 that rare combination of scientific accuracy and 

 artistic skill, for Avhich the productions of his 

 pencil are renowned. 



Probably the sketches in several works of 

 authority, representing the long cilia as short 

 bristles, are merely copies from old drawings, from 

 objects imperfectly seen under indifferent micro- 

 scopes, and before the refinements of illumination 

 were understood. Be this as it may, any reader 

 will be fortunate if on an April, or any other 

 morning, he or she effects the capture of one of 

 these exquisite objects, although the first impression 



