20 THE PLANT-WORLD IN MARCH. 



a day or two, passed into that winter sleep from which 

 to-day's sunshine has awakened it. If this sunshine con- 

 tinues, its warmth intensified towards the afternoon, we 

 may meet several other kinds of butterflies ; but all of 

 them at this season will probably be similarly hibernated 

 specimens. Since the wonderful invasion of a few years 

 back, we may even live in hopes of viewing upon the wing 

 that grand insect the Camberwell Beauty, with white- 

 bordered, claret-coloured wings stretching three inches and 

 a half, which it is so difficult for us to associate with the 

 trim villadom of Camberwell, though it was caught there 

 less than fifty years ago. Probably every schoolboy who 

 ever started a collection has anxiously scanned many an 

 old and ragged small tortoise-shell in the hopes of capturing 

 a Comma; and does familiarity ever breed contempt of 

 such beautiful objects as a Painted Lady or a Red Admiral? 

 The butterflies of the tropics may be larger and more 

 lustrous with metallic sheen ; but they cannot surpass the 

 delicacy of colouring of the under surface of the one, or 

 the rich velvet tints of the other, of these British insects. 

 Their names are homely, but their tints seem suggestive of 

 some palace in fairyland. 



The sight of the bright spot of yellow fluff disporting in 

 the sunshine has for the moment set us thinking that the 

 wild flowers we have come across in our walk have as yet 

 been merely white. True, we have only gone a few yards 

 and here is another little white blossom in the bank beside 

 us. No, it is not a strawberry. It is the humble poor 

 relation of the strawberry, known generally as the barren 

 strawberry. Its little leaves are not unlike those of its 

 more sought-after relative, but more silky, with fine hairs, 

 and so less self-assertive. Its blossoms too are very 



