Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 71 



beautiful (phosphorescent?) light, especially when.it 

 was irritated by being placed upon its back, and ra- 

 pidly turned about, in a circular manner. This in- 

 sect is pretty well figured by Dr. Brown (who names 

 it Elater major fuscus phosphoricus), in his Natural- 

 and Civil History of Jamaica, page 432, t. 44./. 10. 

 It is a native of Jamaica, and of other West-India 

 islands, and also of South. America. It is not proba- 

 ble that it is a native of Pennsylvania ; it is more like- 

 ly, that it has been accidentally introduced into Phila- 

 delphia, in the larvous state, along with the mahogany, 

 or other woods, which are often imported from the 

 islands. 



BOTANY. 



14. The President of the United- States has trans- 

 mitted to the Editor, a correct coloured drawing, to- 

 gether with specimens, of the " Cotton-tree" of North- 

 America. This is a large and stately species of 

 Poplar, not known to the generality of Botanists, but 

 briefly described by Marshall (in his Arbustum Ame- 

 ricanum, p., 106.) by the name of Populus deltoide. 

 It is a native of many parts of the country that is wa- 

 tered by the Ohio, the Missouri, the Missisippi, and 

 other great rivers, where it always prefers the alluvial 

 soil. It is a tree of very rapid growth, it being ascer- 

 tained, that an individual has, in the term of twenty- 

 one years, attained to the height of one hundred and 



