38 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



difficulty in meeting- with it at Kew or Sydenham. It is 

 very curious that this same combination of colour may also 

 be found in a very common but very beautiful butterfly 

 that, like the primrose, hails the warm days of spring 1 . 

 The lover of natural beauty will scarcely have failed to 

 notice and appreciate this insect, the Gonepteryx rhamni, 

 or brimstone butterfly, of the entomologist, its size, the 

 graceful curves of the outlines of the wings, and its 

 appearance at so early a period, all rendering it a con- 

 spicuous addition to the beauties of the wakening year. 

 The entire surface of the wings when displayed reveals the 

 same delicate sulphui -yellow of the primrose, except that 

 in the centre of each wing we find a spot of deeper yellow. 

 As possibly some entomological novice may capture an 

 insect that, while appearing to be the one in question, by no 

 means bears out the enconiums we have pronounced on the 

 beauty of its colouring, we may just mention that it is the 

 male insect that has the ground colour of the wings pure 

 sulphur in tint; in the female the wings are of a dull 

 greenish white. 



The outer edge of each of the wings, both in the 

 male and female, has a conspicuous projecting point or 

 angle, a feature that no other British insect possesses 

 to anything like the same extent, a feature, therefore, 

 that will at once identify it a feature, too, that gives it 

 its first or generic name. Gonepteryx signifies angle- 

 winged, while the specific name points out that the larva, 

 or caterpillar, of this beautiful insect feeds on the rhamnus, 

 or buckthorn. 



The primrose is the Primula vulgaris of botanical 

 nomenclature. The generic name is derived from the 

 Lat. primus, first, in reference to the early appearance of 



