The Cionus 



plotted by the Cionus is not the botanists 1 

 Ferbascum thapsus at all, but quite another 

 plant, of wholly different character, Ver- 

 bascum sinuatum. A lover of the way-side, 

 having no fear of the ungrateful soil and the 

 white dust, the scallop-leaved mullein is a 

 southern plant which spreads over the ground 

 a rosette of broad, fluffy leaves, the edges of 

 which are gashed with deep, wavy incisions. 

 Its flower-stalk is divided into a number of 

 twigs bearing yellow blossoms whose stam- 

 inal filaments are bearded with violet hairs. 

 At the end of May, let us open the um- 

 brella, the collector's chief engine of the 

 chase, underneath the plant. A few blows 

 of a walking-stick on the chandelier ablaze 

 with yellow flowers will bring down a sort 

 of hail. This is our friend the Cionus, a 

 roundish little creature, huddled into a glob- 

 ule on its short legs. Its costume is not lack- 

 ing in elegance and consists of a scaly jacket 

 flecked with black specks on an ash-grey back- 

 ground. The insect is distinguished above 

 all by two large tufts of black velvet, one on 

 its back and the other at the lower extremity 

 of the wing-case. No other Weevil of our 

 country-side wears the like. The rostrum is 

 309 



