The Zoologist — August, 1866. 817 



The cindery ridges and plains around its base were consequently in 

 full glory, for the fierceness of an African sun had not yet parched the 

 soil, which, wet from the general thaw, was already clothed, here and 

 there, with a scanty vegetation, and had become suddenly rich with a 

 Coleopterous Fauna of its own. The brilliancy of the atmosphere in 

 that elevated region is indescribable ; and the passing vapours which 

 would ever and anon catch the apex of the Peak, and condense 

 themselves into the most graceful and fantastic shapes, — sometimes 

 radiating symmetrically round the uppermost point, like a fan of the 

 thinnest gauze, and then disappear in an instant as if by magic, — were 

 a constant source of admiration, so that the eye seemed never weary 

 of feasting on their light and wondrous forms. But what charmed 

 me most were the wiry bushes of the "Ketama" (that noble 

 Broom of the Teneriffian heights), the dense thickets of which, and 

 grand isolated specimens, although interspersed with portions of yet 

 unmelted snow, were just bursting into flower — solid masses of bloom, 

 varying in colour from the purest white into a clear rosy pink. The 

 excessive fragrance of these blossoms, rendered trebly delicious in an 

 atmosphere thus rarified, is proverbial ; and the inhabitants of the 

 lower districts are wise enough to take advantage of the supply of 

 honey to be obtained from them by occasionally sending up their bees 

 en masse, to drink the purest nectar in an apiarian heaven. So 

 powerful indeed is the scent from the thickly-laden branches of this 

 stiff, contorted Broom, the rigid stems of which are implanted like 

 bars of iron into the loose cindery stones amongst which they appear 

 to revel, that not the bees alone, but every winged insect within a 

 considerable distance, as though unable to resist the attraction, hurries 

 off to the scene, to satiate itself, and to claim a share of Nature's 

 bounty. 



But I need not pursue the picture farther; for the provident 

 " collector," at the bare mention of the latter fact, would at once take 

 the hint, and look to his nets. I can only say that / did so, and had 

 no after reason to repent of that shrewd and sagacious step. 



T. V. WOLLASTON. 

 Teignmouth, July 6, 1866. 



Description of the Larva of Hipparchia Semele, with Notes on its Habits, Food, 

 ^■c. — Eggs of this species were obtained iu 1864 by Dr Knaggs, and sent to the Rev. 

 J. Hellins on July 26th and August 3rd; some of them hatched August 8th, and 



