daisies of gigantic bloom, quite independent of snow, on stalks 

 some two feet in length. These flowers evidently enjoy the 

 brilliant sunlight, though that bitterly keen cold wind, the 

 "Mistral," be blowing through the very bones of human 

 beings ; for cold as is the cold here now, it is a clean cold. 

 Not only do we mammals feel the temperature severe almost 

 beyond the death-resisting powers of some of the natives, but 

 certain lepidopterous larvae, which in England are represented 

 by others of their species, respectably in pupse, have been 

 killed by the extremes of mid-day heat and midnight frost. 

 This especially applies to Pieris brassicce, which, on the 8th 

 of January, I saw by hundreds in a most forlorn state of death 

 from starvation, after the bitter frosty wind of the preceding 

 night and hot sunshine of that noontide. The mortality was 

 enormous among these larvs of all sizes, and especially those 

 turning to pupae on the walls near by ; but those already in 

 pupa seemed in no way injured. A few days later on one 

 of these walls was a curious sight of dead and shrivelled 

 larvae by hundreds. In exposed places also are numerous 

 nests of the processionary moth larvae, all dead. Perhaps this 

 unusual severity of weather may be of ultimate advantage 

 to both the insects and to mankind, by reducing the numbers 

 of these abundant species which are so very common here. 

 The nests of Bombyx processionea occur in most of the pine 

 trees of the various kinds found in the Riviera. On one small 

 pine in a garden adjoining the house where I am staying, near 

 Cap Brun, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, are no less 

 than fifteen nests, which at a little distance appear in the 

 sunshine like so many soda-water bottles hung out to dry. 

 This species also affects the stunted pines at an elevation of 

 3,000 feet above the sea. 



Like other South European races, the inhabitants of 

 Provence are strictly utilitarian in the use of nearly all animals 

 for food. Nothing comes amiss, excepting perhaps magpies 

 and lizards. An Englishman feels shocked on seeing piles 

 of dead birds exposed for sale in the markets, few larger 

 than thrushes, while the most common are robins, goldfinches, 

 and others, down to wrens in size. Such is the daily exhibi- 



