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Florida Bugzgist 
Official Organ of the Florida Entomological Society 
WOlLs i SPRING NUMBER NO. 4 
MARCH, 1919 
(Printed in April, 1919) 
A DAY WITH THE WILD PLUMS 
(Feb. 22, 1919) 
For perfect bliss give me a day like this, clear, bright, and 
warm, but not too hot, a thicket full of bloom and insects, a net, 
and a holiday. The sun’s rays fall cheerfully on coatless back 
and hatless head; the scent of the blossoms thrills the nostrils 
and the busy hum of insects the ears. Such a day and place 
will quickly drown all care and worry, the blues, a hard cold, 
and almost an appetite for dinner if one has to forsake the 
thicket to get it. For this will be our last chance, as the trees 
are fast dropping their petals. A few more days and the hum- 
ming host will have dispersed to other hunting grounds hardly 
to meet again in such a notable gathering until the chin- 
quepin blooms, in late April or May. For the wild plum is a 
democratic blossom; its nectar and pollen are open to all comers 
from the lordly Yellow Swallow-tail (Papilio turnus) or the 
even larger butterfly of the Orange Dog (Papilio cresphontes) to 
the minutest fly or thrips. Not so all blooms. Look, for in- 
stance, at that Red Bud, Cercis Canadensis. An exclusive aris- 
tocrat, its sweets are locked up from the common herd in a 
corolla of rigid petals which only the stronger bees (honey- and 
bumble-bees) can force apart. The charming Yellow Jasmin is 
’ only a little less aristocratic. Its voluptuously scented vase is 
accessible to only the long sucking tubes of some of the larger 
butterflies. I note only the Yellow Swallow-tail and the black 
and white Papilio ajav. Poor pickings for an entomologist at 
either of these plants, so let us back to the Wild Plum. 
Most conspicuous among the busy throng are the butterflies. 
The tree is the Mecca for most of those that have emerged to 
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