66 A NATURE WOOING. 



influence of such a breeze as that now fanning my 

 cheek when sap ran riot in the veins of plants and 

 insects' wings began their humming. 



The colored section hands have cut down the this- 

 tle which, two days ago, blossomed for me. Me- 

 thinks no one but I saw the beauty of its bloom I 

 and the insects which it attracted unto itself. 



Along the margin of the marsh before me grows, 

 in these pine and palmetto woods, a shrubby buck- 

 eye, JEsculus pavia L., now putting forth its hand- 

 some oblong panicles of rose red flowers. Insects by 

 scores are visitors thereto, but, for the most part, they 

 are the common species of butterflies. 



A ^are-footed, freckle-faced white boy, a dozen 

 years of age or thereabouts, from whom I purchased 

 some chamseleons a few days ago, meets me on the 

 way hither and greets me as an old friend. I had 

 asked him to capture some snakes for me, and he 

 tells me that he has one coral snake, but adds that 

 "snake hunting is hard work." He expects a quarter 

 of a dollar for the one he has, and I tell him to bring 

 it down to the village in a few days. 



I pull the bark from about the trunk of a dead 

 pine, five feet in diameter, for as high as I can reach. 

 A careful inspection of both bark and trunk yields 

 but three species of beetles, and one of these, a 

 StapJiylinid, I fail to capture. One of the others is 

 Morio monilicorms Lat., a slender, dark, shining- 

 brown carabid, two-thirds of an inch in length; the 



