NATURAL HISTORY JVORK IN CART AGO 85 



July and August, made the tree both conspicuous and at- 

 tractive. On wooded banks and roadsides we often found the 

 delicate Tibouchina bourgeauana as well as the beautiful 

 Arthrostemma campanulare, the latter bearing large pink 

 flowers more than an inch across. 



Acalyphas (such as A. leptopoda) were common in wet 

 places, and crotons were also numerous, both small orna- 

 mental species and trees such as the flat-topped "Targua" 

 (Croton gossypiifolius) , which grows thickly in rough or waste 

 land. Their blooming extended over some months but we 

 found the targua fruiting in August. In the parks, crotons 

 were to be found blooming all the year round, practically. 

 From August to November the "Alacrancillo" {Dalea alope- 

 curoides) was exceedingly abundant. It is a leguminous 

 weed, troublesome in the pastures but very pretty neverthe- 

 less. It grew two to three feet high with racemes of small 

 lavender to white flowers, the inflorescence having a delicate 

 gray or pearl color. The commonest solanaceous plants 

 were the "Berengenas" {Solarium sp.), straggling woody 

 shrubs with small blue or white flowers, large coarse leaves 

 and clusters of green berries. They grew by the roadsides 

 and in poor, neglected pastures, much as Jamestown-weed 

 does in the eastern United States. They were unattractive 

 plants to us but the chosen food of many potato beetles and 

 we often hunted over the leaves for them. These beetles 

 {Leptinotarsa undecimlineata) much resemble the common 

 "potato bug" of the United States (Z. decemlineata) but 

 differ in having the legs, except the pads, and the under sur- 

 face of the body black, while in the latter these parts are 

 chiefly reddish or reddish-yellow. Around houses, in poor 

 pastures and on the open roadsides were great quantities 

 of a most troublesome malvaceous weed, "Escobilla" {Sida 

 rhombifolia) . It formed thick clumps covered with pretty 

 little buttercup-yellow blossoms half an inch across. These 



