97 



all, then the brighter Grauson Valley specimens will represent the 

 type, whilst the name vaiiadis, must be retained for the darker 

 Grauson Valley, the Cogne Valley, the Scotch and Lapland speci- 

 mens. It seems even, then, rather a case of splitting straws. One 

 thing is certain, the Scotch name sjibochracea, White, must sink in 

 favour of vanadis, Dalman. It may, of course, be urged that 

 subochracea is a well-known name in England ; in fact, the only 

 varietal name known. Against that I would urge that Dr. White was 

 uncertain that his form was not vanadis ; that this particular varietal 

 form is distributed in all the Continental collections under the name 

 of vafiadis, and that the latter name has priority by nearly three- 

 quarters of a century. The examination of a number of Lapland 

 specimens amply confirms this conclusion. 



Insensibly as the various forms lead into one another, yet there 

 can be but little doubt that each particular locality gives some little 

 detail of character, that makes the study of this species exceedingly 

 interesting, and I have no doubt that almost every valley in Pied- 

 mont, Savoy, and Switzerland, where Z. exiclans occurs, would give 

 us a race that in some minor details v/ould interest us, and show us 

 some little difference from those found in the neighbouring valleys. 

 But most interest attaches to our Piedmont captures among the 

 specimens that I exhibit to-night, in the fact that they agree almost 

 identically with the Scotch specimens which we have so long learned 

 to look upon as being something exceedingly different from those of 

 Switzerland and Continental Europe generally. 



Zygaena carniolica, Scop., and its varieties. 



By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. Read October 2$fh, 1894. 



At the foot of Mont Blanc (on its Italian side) lies Courmayeur, 

 the queen of all Italian summer resorts. Everywhere around the 

 eye rests on snow-clad mountains, mighty glaciers, turbid torrents, 

 and magnificent cataracts, whilst the village itself, with its quaint 

 Swiss roofs, narrow streets, and palatial hotels, combines in a 

 wonderfully happy manner the beauty of the old with the comfort 

 of more modern tastes. 



Below Courmayeur runs the lovely Dora, here skirted with 

 emerald meadows, there hurling its waters through a deep and 

 rocky gorge, then dashing through a walnut grove whose lovely 

 foliage filters the bright rays of the sun and makes a welcome shade. 

 Behind Courmayeur the cultivated patches, with their saxifrage- 

 covered stone walls, extend up to a long sweeping belt of larches, 

 the lower margin here of the pine district, which goes on and on 

 up the steep mountain sides until the grim and iron hand of the 

 snow god saps their vitality and crushes out even their life in the 



H 



