FLOSCUCULI FLY- CATCHER. 



505 



FLOSCUCULI or cuckoo flower, is the Lychnis 

 Jloscucidi of Linnaeus, a common British plant abund- 

 ant in moist meadows, so called from its flowering 

 about the same time with the arrival of the cuckoo. 

 There is a double variety of it met with in gardens. 

 It belongs to the natural order Caryophyllece. 



FLOS JOVIS is the Lychnis flos Jovis of Linnaeus, 

 a common British weed found on hedge banks and 

 sides of roads. 



FLOWER FENCE is the Poinciana pulcherrima 

 of Linnaeus, one of the most beautiful of Indian plants. 

 It belongs to the Legummotte ; and when kept in a 

 strong heat flowers readily in our stoves. It is pro- 

 pagated by cuttings, but much oftener by seeds 

 brought from its native country. 



FLOWERING ASH is the Ornus Eurojuea of 

 Persoon, a hardy deciduous tree, common in our 

 arborctums, and belonging to the order OleiiKe. 



FLOWERING RUSH is the Butomus umbdlatus 

 of Linuceus, a beautiful British plant found in pools 

 and wet ditches. 



FLUVIALES, an order of aquatic plants, other- 

 wise called NayadacecE or Hydragetons, and by some 

 botanists Potamece and Potamapheltte. Like the 



Fluviales. 



Lemnacece, these plants are believed to be destitute 

 of spiral vessels, or if not wholly absent, they are 

 nearly obsolete ; in Caulinia, Amici says, no trace of 

 them can be found. Their cellular structure likewise 

 remains uncondensed in its outer layers ; therefore no 

 cuticular integument is formed, and they are devoid 

 of stomata. Hence both these types descend in 

 structure nearly to the rudimental state of the Algcc, 

 from which, however, they are distinguished by 

 their flowers, when the other diagnostics fail. 



The most useful of this order is the Zostera marina, 

 or grass-wrack, which forms an excellent packing for 

 brittle ware ; it is also platted into coverings for 

 bottles and oil-flasks : and lately under the name of 

 Alga marina it has been recommended for stuffing 

 mattresses, being tolerably light and soft, and intoler- 

 ant of vermin : a great recommendation in many 

 places. 



FLY. A name indefinitely given to all insects 

 having gauze-like naked wings as well as even to 

 several kinds of beetles. Thus the Haltica ncmorum 

 is called the turnip-fly, and the Elater noctilucus fire- 

 fly. If we would take the name in its most restricted 

 sense, the common domestic-fly, Musca domestica, 

 appears most entitled to it. See MUSCID^:. 



FLY-CATCHER (Muscicapa), a genus of birds 

 placed by Cuvier in the first or Dentirostral sub-order 

 of the great order Passeres, and forming the second 



family of that sub-order, or the one immediately fol- 

 lowing the shrikes in structural arrangement. The 

 birds, however, which the elder naturalists were in 

 the habit of arranging indiscriminately as fly-catchers, 

 are so exceedingly numerous, and differ 'from each 

 other in so many points, that Cuvier has divided them 

 into several sub-genera, of which the names are Tyran- 

 nus,Muscipeta, Muscicapa, Gymnocephalus,&n& Ccpha- 

 lopterus. When we come to give a more extended 

 notice of the details, we shall be enabled to point out 

 how those sub-genera differ from each other, while they 

 all agree to some extent, at least in the general habit of 

 feeding upon flies ; but even here the species of some 

 of the sub-genera are so exceedingly numerous, and 

 the materials we are in possession of are so scanty, that 

 it is impossible for us to enter into descriptions of 

 them, nor if we could would it be of much utility, as 

 the greater number are known only as museum speci- 

 mens, though in their native localities most species 

 are understood to be as abundant as the species them- 

 selves are numerous. The following is a description 

 usually given of them by those who profess to connect 

 the characters of birds with their external expression, 

 and in this instance it is almost all we can obtain. 

 They are birds which dwell in wild and solitary places, 

 and are characteristic of wild nature, and not of the 

 earth as cultivated by man. Their expression is ac- 

 cordingly sullen, and many of them have a fierce and 

 pugnacious air. As they are obliged to seize upon 

 their prey in mid-air, they are almost always perched 

 upon the summit of trees, and rarely descend to the 

 ground. As they are chasers of flies, their true coun- 

 try must be in the wooded regions of the globe. 

 Accordingly, for three or four species which are known 

 in Europe, we reckon in Africa a great number, also 

 in the warm climates of Asia, and Australasia, and 

 still more in America. In this last continent we find 

 the larger species which have been denominated 

 tyrants. As nature has increased the growth, and 

 multiplied the number of insects in the New World, 

 so has she opposed to them enemies more numerous 

 and more powerful. It is a trite observation, but one 

 which the study of nature illustrates at every step, 

 that all in this world is balanced. When evil exists, 

 there will always be found some equiponderating 

 good, and it rarely happens that any one species, or 

 genus, is suffered to multiply and extend to the serious 

 prejudice of another. We see, it is true, everywhere 

 a great destruction of life, but we also see an equiva- 

 lent reparation ; we must not take a circumscribed or 

 conventional view of the grand operations of nature. 

 It is impossible for any one who has not actually 

 visited them, to torm any adequate idea of the activity 

 of life, both animal and vegetable, in those. portions 

 of the tropical countries where the powers of nature 

 are almost unceasingly at work, or of the energy of 

 the same powers, and the greatness of their results 

 during the short summers of even the polar countries; 

 and, as the productions of nature all subsist upon 

 each other, the destroyers are always adapted to the 

 destroyed, so that the balance of nature is kept up. 



The following passage from Buffon, though perhaps 

 not perfectly true to nature and philosophy in every 

 respect, yet affords so lively a picture of the service 

 which birds render in the destruction of insects, that 

 we shall not hesitate to give it a place in our pages : 

 " Without them," (that is the birds,) says this flowery 

 writer, " without their assistance, vain would be the 

 efforts of man to destroy or banish the clouds of fly- 



