242 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Lynmouth is often, aptly, styled the English Switzerland. I 

 must not, however, attempt to describe the beauty or grandeur 

 of its scenery, because, apart from the fact that to do so would be 

 foreign to the general purport of these notes, I fear that my pen 

 would fail to draw a sufficiently vivid word-picture of such 

 charming valleys as that of the East Lynn, or do justice to the 

 rugged magnificence of its lofty hills. 



A rough idea of the more prominent botanical characteristics 

 of the locality is pertinent to the subject in hand. The beautiful 

 woods, which fringe the bed of the East Lynn and cover the lower 

 slopes of the hills on either side, are composed mainly of young 

 oaks, with here and there a band of larch or spruce. Clumps of 

 alder bushes and alder trees of large size grow by the margins of 

 the stream. An occasional ash, beech, or birch, and some fine old 

 hornbeam trees, together with an undergrowth of hazel {Corylus), 

 dogwood (Cornus), buckthorn {Bhamnus catharticus), sallow (Salix), 

 rose (Rosa), bramble (Rub us), honeysuckle (Lonicera), bilberry 

 (Vaccinium myrtillus), ling (Calluna), and other plants, such as 

 golden-rod (Solidago virgaurea), yellow cow-wheat (Melampyrum 

 pratense), wood-sage (Teucrium scorodonia) , &c, offer food for the 

 larva? and refuge for the imagines of many species of Lepidoptera. 



The rocky hill-sides are chiefly covered with a short springy 

 turf, not unlike that of the downs in the South of England. Many 

 plants, such as wild-thyme, milkwort (Polygala), scabious, &c, 

 grow in great luxuriance thereon. Large clumps of furze are 

 scattered about, many of which must have existed undisturbed by 

 man for numbers of years, judging from the height — eight or nine 

 feet — to which some of the bushes have attained. The rocks are 

 clothed with various mosses and lichens, and on some of them are 

 patches of stonecrop (Sedum). Where the ground is very stony 

 or much broken the foxglove abounds, and in some of these 

 places wormword (Artemisia absinthium) is plentiful; dog-violet 

 and strawberry are both abundant ; so also is the wild-madder 

 (Rubia peregrina) in particular spots. 



Although many species of Lepidoptera were abundant in the 

 larval stage at Lynmouth during the first fortnight of June, but 

 few imagines of any species were to be met with until the 15th of 

 the month. This state of things was without doubt due to the 

 retarding influence of dry cold easterly winds, which had prevailed 

 in the district for some considerable time previous to my arrival 



