NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 239 
statement. However in the south I saw no signs of such being the 
case. From what I could gather, this butterfly in the neighbourhood 
of Wellington and elsewhere seems to be on the wing practically all 
the year round, but far most abundant in the summer and early 
autumn. I arrived in Wellington about mid-November where [I 
found the spring extremely cold, but all the same it was not long 
before I had secured a good number of goneriila larvee, some from 
the dwarf nettles which grew somewhat sparingly in certain damp 
situations in some native bush, near Karori (by following the 
instructions of Mr. H. W. Simmonds), and others on the bush-nettle, 
a huge, thick plant, which, thanks to information received from 
Prof. Kirk, of Wellington, I found quite a lot of, down in one gully, 
near a stream, below some “ sheep-trimmed downs.” The bush- 
nettle (U. ferox) is a very large member of the Urtice family ; its 
sting is so formidable as to cause intense numbness to the fingers 
for several days afterwards. It is being destroyed everywhere as a 
useless pest, and hence, I suppose, the said diminution in the 
numbers of P. gonerilla, though it is nowhere near extinction at 
present. The larva varies very considerably; some were nearly 
black, others almost entirely of a deep cream colour; then again a 
pale dull green hue was in preponderance, in some cases extremely 
so, with every intermediate form of it. I also found the pupa, on 
several occasions, rolled up in the nettle-leaves. The butterflies 
began to emerge in December, and all I had were out before the 
middle of January. I bred some dozens of them and could have 
secured as many more had I wished to. The place where I saw 
most wild specimens on the wing was Wanganui (in the south part 
of the North Island) late in January. Here on the banks of the 
Wanganui River, where Buddleva grew in great abundance, on the 
mauve blossoms of this attractive plant, gonervlia was much in 
evidence; whereas of the other Vanessa (V. ztea), said to be partly 
accountable for the possible extermination of the former, I saw 
scarcely a single specimen. I do not know if Buddleza is indigenous 
to New Zealand, or has been imported thither from the old country, 
but if this is so, I can only say that, like many other imported 
things, it is doing mighty well in the south hemisphere. Many things 
which flourish there have been imported, some to the subsequent 
annoyance of the New Zealander. For instance, the humble bee 
was found to be a necessary influence in the fertilisation of clover, 
and was duly imported, with the results that the clover seeds alright, 
but the bee attacks beans, and riddles holes in them at a certain 
period of their development, thus causing an immense amount of 
destruction to the crops. Sparrows are everywhere, and skylarks fill 
the skies with their songs—in fact, if 1 am here in the spring, I need 
only go out into the meadows of England, close my eyes, and feel 
myself back in New Zealand. Another importation which has 
flourished amazingly in its new surroundings is the common black- 
berry; one could almost live on them in the neighbourhood of 
Nelson. I have never seen such quantities anywhere in Europe, and 
in size and flavour they were equal to, if not surpassing, the culti- 
vated blackberries of California.n—Maraarer E. Founraine, F.E.S., 
126, Lexham Gardens, London, W. 8, September 7th, 1921. 
