352 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



discovery, as we may well call it, of Peiresc, may 

 easily do so by rearing any of the spinous caterpillars 

 which feed on the nettle till they are transformed into 

 the butterfly. We have witnessed the circumstance 

 in innumerable instances. 



It is a curious and interesting probability, that the 

 crimson snow of the Alpine and Arctic regions, which 

 has recently excited so much scientific inquiry, should 

 be referable to a somewhat similar cause, a circum- 

 stance which will apologize for our taking some no- 

 tice of it here by way of illustration. According to 

 Professor Agardh, red snow is very common in all 

 the alpine districts of Europe, and is probably of the 

 same nature with that brought from the polar regions 

 by Captain Ross. Saussure saw it in abundance on 

 Mont Brevern, in Switzerland, and elsewhere ; 

 Ramond found it on the Pyrenees ; and Sommerfeldt 

 in Norway. In March, 1808, the whole country 

 about Cadone, Belluno, and Eeltri, is reported to 

 have been covered in a single night with rose-coloured 

 snow ; and at the same time a similar shower was 

 witnessed on the mountains of Valtelin, Brescia, 

 Carinthia, and Tyrol. But the most remarkable red 

 snow" shower was that which fell on the night between 

 the 14th and loth of March, 1823, in Calabria, 

 in Abruzzo, in Tuscany, at Bologna, and through the 

 whole chain of the Appennines. 



Upon the return of Captain Ross from the Polar 

 expedition some years ago, the specimens of red 

 snow which he brought home were examined by 

 three of our most distinguished observers, Wollaston, 

 Bauer, and Robert Brown, who all came to the 

 conclusion that it was of a vegetable nature, but 

 differed as to its botanical characteristics. Dr 

 Wollaston supposed it to be the seed of some moss ; 

 Mr Brown was inclined to consider it an algas, re- 

 lated to Tremella cruenia, a common native plant ; 



