3lune 



XXIII 



NIGHT after night at this season a free entertainment 

 is provided for wayfarers by moorland roads, The Glow- 

 though few there be to take advantage of it. worm 

 This, and this only, it has in common with the all- 

 absorbing cinema, that the display can only be enjoyed 

 in the dark. And whereas daylight lingers to such a 

 late hour (according to summer time) in our northerly 

 sky that most of us are abed before the glow-worms 

 light up, consequently there are thousands of country- 

 bred men and women who have never seen the little 

 lanterns that twinkle so prettily by the roadsides in 

 uncultivated lands. Wheresoever heather and bracken 

 prevail against agricultural encroachment, there these 

 little torch-bearers congregate, and illumine the rough 

 herbage with their love-lamps. It is well worth devot- 

 ing a warm night to an excursion to witness them. 



In connection with this creature, a time-worn nursery 

 riddle may be paraphrased thus when is a worm not 

 a worm ? Answer when it is a glow-worm. For 

 Lampyris noctiluca, the title which Linnaius borrowed 

 from Greek and Latin writers to bestow upon this 

 insect, is far more highly organised than any worm, 

 being in fact a true beetle. The confusion of terms 



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