SEPTEMBER. 289 



C. — I have seen a shrub^ lately, bearing thick clusters of 

 small berries of a brilliant scarlet^ on the ends of the twigs : 

 the leaves handsomely pinnate. 



F. — That is the Sumach (Rhus TyphinumJ : it is 

 somewhat rare here ; it keeps its handsome spikes of berries 

 all the winter, whence it is cherished as an ornamental 

 shrub ; the berries are extremely acid. Sumach is used in 

 tanning the finer kinds of leather. The Wild Goose- 

 berry (Ribes Cynoshati) is ripe ; the fruit is dark, dull red, 

 very sweet, but armed with formidable spines. You may 

 have observed at the edge of yon willow and poplar woods, 

 a thicket of brambles, consisting of long tall shoots so closely 

 entangled, and so beset at every point with exceedingly 

 sharp and strong spines, that there is no penetrating it. It 

 is called here the Blackberry (Ruhus Hispidus) : the fruit 

 is sweet, but dry, and rather insipid ; and by no means 

 worth the pain and toil of procuring it. 



C, — The wild raspberries are now in full ripeness and 

 flavour ; the bushes are crowded with them. Numbers of 

 bugs, shaped like a tortoise, with a convex back (Scutellera), 

 and other kinds, resort to them ; and we often take these 

 into our mouths with the fruit ; but the horribly pungent 

 smell and taste soon discover to us the difference between a 

 bug and a raspberry. 



F, — I once saw a largish Cimex (Coreus Ordinatus ? J, 

 which, when molested, suddenly ejected so powerful an 

 effluvium, that the water ran out of my eyes, and they 

 smarted as if an onion had been cut under them. This 

 power is, I suppose, their means of defence. 



C — Here is a curious Ichneumon ; it is of a polished 

 black, the abdomen is very long, the first five segments being 

 each one third of an inch in length. 



F. — It is the Needle Ichneumon (Felecinus Folycera- 







