APRIL. 75 



F, — I know Saturnia Polyphemus is found here, and I 

 think it probable S. Luna too ; both of them splendid moths. 



Here are the first signs of returning spring that I 



have yet seen in the vegetable creation. The catkins of the 

 Poplar {Populus Tremuloides), and those of some of the 

 Willows {Salix), are just beginning to show their silky- 

 heads out of their bursting envelopes. These trees, like 

 many others, blossom before they put forth their leaves ; the 

 catkin, or ament, as it is botanically called, being a spike of 

 close-set, minute flowers. Both of these genera, the poplar 

 and the willow, have the male and female flowers on differ- 

 ent plants, but the catkins resemble each other. Of the ge- 

 nus Salix, Professor Eaton gives, in his excellent " Manual 

 of Botany," no less than forty species as indigenous to North 

 America. They chiefly delight in wet places, but do not 

 abound in the primitive forests. Of all the plants in this 

 class, fertile seeds can be produced only by the proximity of 

 the two sexes, so that the farina from the stamens may im- 

 pregnate the pistils. Common as that graceful species, the 

 Lombardy Poplar {Pop. Dilatata) is, both here, and all over 

 the United States, it is said, that no pistillate or female 

 plant of this species has ever been brought to America, and 

 consequently, being all males, no seed has ever been produced 

 here. 



C. — How have they then been multiplied ? 



F. — By suckers or shoots, which take root very readily ; 

 but as these twigs or suckers, '^ however recently inserted, 

 feel the effects of age in the same degree as the twigs remain- 

 ing on the original tree, the species is becoming enfeebled 

 with age in our country, so that very recent shoots will 

 hardly withstand a severe winter. We see but the feeble 

 limbs of an exile in dotage, though yet sustained in a thou- 

 sand localities." 



C — I have lately observed several caterpillars, thinly 



E 2 



