TRAMPS THROUGH THE GULF STATES II 



541 



over an hundred species are to be found in the United 

 States, not a few of which are to be taken only in the 

 Gulf States. Some collectors confine themselves entirely 

 to the representatives of this assemblage, and many works 

 have been published about them. 



Butterflies are, of course, only taken in the day-time; 

 but what has just been said in regard to the moths applies 

 equally to them, and, it may be said, too, of all other 

 insects. 



As has already been stated, Florida is a great State 

 for flowers, and doubtless there are many new species 

 to be collected within her boundaries. Many of those 

 already known are either very curious or else very beau- 

 tiful, and frequently a species will glory in both of these 

 attributes. Some of the plants, as many know, are 

 carnivorous in 

 habit, capturing 

 and digesting a 

 number of in- 

 sects. About a 

 year ago, Mr. 

 F. W. Walker 

 sent the writer, 

 from southern 

 Flor i d a , up- 

 wards of twen- 

 ty living speci- 

 mens of the 

 plant known as 

 Venus' Flytrap. 

 A single plant 

 will measure 

 but a couple of 

 inches across, 

 or about five 

 c e n t i m eters, 

 while it does 

 not grow to be 

 more than half 

 that height. Its 

 leaves are red- 

 dish and green- 

 ish, and more or less sticky, with minute, flexible hairs to the landscape in many places a truly tropical aspect, 

 growing all over their upper surfaces. Each leaf may besides being distinctly picturesque in appearance. Their 

 close up by the two halves folding upon each other, the big flower pannicles are wonderfully showy, and attract 

 hinge-line being the mid-rib. Now when some hapless many handsome butterflies and some other insects, while 

 little fly alights upon one of these leaves, it slowly closes small mammals and various snakes, some of them venom- 

 up upon him, until the insect is entirely in its grasp ; the ous, may hide about their bases where the spiny leaves 

 leaf does not open up again until the insect is not only are dead and directed downwards, 

 lifeless, but actually digested, just as though it had been 

 in the stomach of some animal possessing a regular diges- 

 tive apparatus, such as that of any mammal we may 

 happen to think of when the process of ordinary diges- 

 tion is being considered. 



But rich as the flora of the Floridian region is, it has 

 no mean rival in this respect in some parts of Texas. 

 In certain areas the country is rich in grasses, and a 

 most interesting collection of these may be gathered by 

 the explorer. Indeed, one area is extremely rich in 



A FIXE SPECIMEN OF THE "LUNA" MOTH 



Figure 

 collected 



moth, co 



with the edges of the forewings marked with rick brown and tan 



these plants, extending as it does from the northwestern 

 part of the State south to the thirty-seventh degree of 

 latitude, and eastward to the one hundred and first 

 meridian of longitude. Along the Rio Grande many 

 species are found that are the same as those that occur 

 in northern Mexico. Coastwise, many elegant trees - 

 may be seen and studied, the principal representation 

 being peculiar oaks and hickories, as well as the long 

 and short-leaved pines. 



Mesquite bush and scattered live oaks are the prin- 

 cipal ones, and in some places the only trees to be seen 

 in the black prairie region. Along the rivers in the 

 valleys we meet with fine pecans, cottonwoods, and more 

 kinds of oaks, while in many places numerous shrubs 

 flourish in great profusion. Various tree and shrub 



growths are 

 found in other 

 regions, while 

 cacti and yuc- 

 cas of several 

 species flourish 

 throughout the 

 valley of the 

 R i o Grande. 

 Incidentally, it 

 may be said 

 that there is a 

 large lumber 

 trade in Texas, 

 more particu- 

 larly in pine 

 timber, the 

 other woods be- 

 ing used only 

 for fuel and 

 fences. 



Speaking of 

 the yuccas 

 (Figure 14), in 

 the southern 

 part of the 

 State they lend 



rure 11. Of all the American moths, no single species is more universally admired or more eagerly 

 lected by the amateur lepidopterist than the "Luna." This is a perfect specimen of a male Luna 

 th, collected and photographed from life, natural size, by the author. It is of a pale green color, 



Anyone who has traveled through western Texas be- 

 comes familiar with the mesquite tree, or, as it sometimes 

 grows, a shrub. In some places where it may grow to 

 be thirty or forty feet high, it is commonly known as 

 the chaparral. Here it is scrubby and masses into dense 

 clumps, it being the home of that famous bird the 

 "road-runner" or chaparral cock, and other interesting 

 species. This is a form of big, ground cuckoo, that only 

 takes to flight when hard pressed ; while on open ground 

 it can run so fast that an ordinary horse cannot keep up 



