388 PECULIARITIES OF 



feet their seed, which do not usually in our climate ; 

 such as night-stocks, erodiums, heliotrope, ground- 

 sels, cape-asters, and such green-house plants vege- 

 tating in the open air. With me all the polyanthus 

 tribe, especially the double varieties, suffered greatly ; 

 lovers of the cold and moisture of a northern 

 climate, in this tropic heat, they became so parched 

 as never properly to recover their verdure, and in 

 the ensuing spring I missed these gay and pleasing 

 flowers in my borders. 



It was a sad destructive season for the poor but- 

 terflies, and no sooner did a specimen appear upon 

 the wing, than the swallow and all the fly-catching 

 tribe snapped them up, rendered eager and vigi- 

 lant from the scarcity of insect food. Even that 

 active and circumspect creature the humming-bird 

 sphinx could not always, with every exertion of its 

 agility, escape their pursuit. 



Early in August rains fell, and continued season- 

 ably until September; and their effect upon our 

 scorched vegetation, from the general heat of the 

 earth and the air, was extremely rapid. The larch, 

 and other trees which had shed their leaves, now 

 put forth their tender green foliage as in spring ; 

 and by the end of September the universal verdure 

 of the country, and profusion of feed in the pas- 

 tures, was so perfectly unlike what we had been 

 accustomed to in common years, as to be astonish- 

 ing. Even as low in the year as the llth of Octp- 



