En ee nee 
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1905] Nature Stupy—No. 30. 183 
leaf is prevented from passing within the leaf sheath by the ligule, 
the small scale at the junction of leaf and sheath. 
Much could be learned about the insect life of The Chateau, 
but space will allow only a brief notice of a few forms, not to 
mention the always interesting common white and sulphur butter- 
flies, the swallow-tails, the red-admirals, fritillaries, meadow- 
browns, and the bluets, which flit here and there and from meadow 
to meadow, or the bees, wasps, flies and beetles which are on the 
flowers at the water’s edge. Many yellowish maggot leaf-miners 
inhabit the leaves of joe-pye weed and feed on the soft tissues 
between the two outer layers. 
Plant-lice are abundant on the stems of some of the plants. 
Those that cluster on the stems of lamb’s-quarters are of a green- 
ish color, those on the Canada thistle black, and those on small 
Balm of Gilead spotted. Ants, too, are there feeding on the 
sweet honey-dew secreted by their ‘‘cows.’’ Small caterpillars 
form nests on the umbels of the wild parsnips by drawing the 
flowers together with silken webs, and large black-and-white, 
plumed caterpillars feed on the leaves of the ash trees, and often 
make themselves too friendly when they drop from the leaves to 
the hats and coats of the passers-by. 
Insect life is varied enough to allow the close observer a wide 
choice of subject, and blind he must be who can not find in this 
great field many and interesting studies. 
Down along the shore is a low wall of large stones built by a 
former owner for a breakwater. To a student with an interest in 
minerals and rocks, these stones are instructive objects; for there 
are boulders of gneiss rocks and granite, sandstone almost changed 
to quartz rock, quartz conglomerate, and dark grey limestone. 
All of these have stories to tell, and some of them are miles away 
from their original home, having been carried by the great 
glacier. All show traces of the action of water and ice; their 
rough edges are rounded, and their sides are scratched and some- 
times flattened. 
The public road occupies the summit of the old beach, where 
the river was both wider and deeper than now. Away across the 
river the old beach may be seen quite plainly at the same height. 
