112 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The Flora of the Pharaohs. — The oldest herbarium in the 

 world is in the Egyptological Museum, Cairo. It consists of a 

 large number of plants, dried 5,000 years ago, and recovered 

 from sarcophagi. The colours of most of the specimens are 

 excellently preserved. By soaking the plants in warm water, 

 pressing, and re-drying, they are rendered suitable for herbarium 

 purposes. Among the plants most constantly used by the ancient 

 Egyptians for the decoration of the dead were the White and the 

 Blue Lotus, the Red Poppy, the flowers of the Pomegranate, 

 Safflower, Chrysanthevium coronatum, and Mallow, as well as 

 the leaves of the celery, the onion, and the leek. Many of the 

 plant-remains were identified by Schweinfurth, the African 

 traveller, and a special treatise on the Pharaonic Flora has 

 recently been written in French by V. Lovet, and published in 

 Paris. — Chemist and Druggist, 27th May, 1893. 



Butterflies at Electric Light. — At about ten o'clock one 

 evening last week, during a thunderstorm, I was taking moths, 

 attracted by the arc lights in this town. Amongst other insects I 

 took five specimens of Pyrameis Kershawii and two of Junonia 

 vellida. The butterflies were flying round the lamps, and very 

 anxious to get inside. I always understood this peculiarity was 

 confined to moths as far as Lepidoptera are concerned. — F. L. 

 Billinghurst, Castlemaine. 



Instincts of the Codlin Moth. — One evening last autumn 

 I was supping with a friend, and he brought up a bottle of lager 

 beer from his cellar. On removing the tinfoil from the cork a 

 larva of the Codlin Moth was exposed to view, having eaten out 

 a little hollow in the cork, evidently preparatory to assuming the 

 pupa stage. My friend told me nearly every bottle he opened 

 had a similar grub in the cork. Later on it transpired that the 

 bottles had been in his cellar some time, that he had a pear tree 

 infested with the moth, had gathered the fruit before it was ripe 

 and laid it in his cellar alongside the beer, so it was evident the 

 grubs had emerged from the fruit as usual, and scented the corks 

 in the bottles — cork being, of course, tree bark, and as they 

 usually go through the pupa stage in the crevices of the bark of 

 the trees they have ruined, considered the cork to be very good 

 substitute. — F. L. Billinghurst, Castlemaine. 



Wanted to Exchange. — Nature (unbound), 5th June, 1873, to 

 5th August, 1882, for transactions of Australian societies, or any 

 works relating to Australian Natural History. — F. L. Billing- 

 hurst, National Bank, Castlemaine. 



[Several of these notes have been held over owing to pressure 

 on the pages of the Naturalist. — Ed. V.N.'\ 



