ENGLISH GLOWWORMS. 169 



effulgent fire-flies their sparkling lucciole we are returned 

 to the quiet over-arching lanes of our own England, and the 

 quiet radiance of our English glowworm ; and, after all we have 

 been saying about the importation of foreign stars, perhaps 

 we should be very sorry to see the eclipse of our native gem. 



As well, perhaps, might we desire to behold the modest 

 maids and wives of England (of whom glowworms are the 

 shining symbols) eclipsed in their quiet homes by the brilliant 

 charmers of east, and west, and south, dazzling and restless 

 as the / luminous flutterers of their respective climes. Each, 

 doubtless, are best in their own accordant places. 



Our English glowworm* (as we presume most people are 

 aware) is the wingless female of a winged beetle, which also 

 carries a light, though one of much inferior lustre.f As 

 surrounded by hedge-row flowers (symbols of home at- 

 tractions), she shines from her mossy bed, supposed to guide 

 the eye while awaiting the appearance of her active mate, 

 truly the glowworm is a perfect image of loving maiden or 

 anxious wife, who, at a cottage in the very lane close by, has 

 placed a candle in the casement, or heaped wood upon the 

 hearth, by way, at once, of pole-star and of welcome, to her 

 hastening swain or loitering husband. Pity that an idea so 

 pretty should have come, in these unpoetic days, to be looked on 

 as a mere growth of fancy, nipped, though not uprooted, by the 



* Lampyris notiluca. See Vignette. 



t A solitary glowworm, resembling the English, out much larger and more bril- 

 liant, was seen by Bishop Heber in Ceylon. He makes no mention of lantern-flies. 



