316 Miscellaneous. 



leporina was picked both on Lochnagar and on Cairn Toul ; Carejf 

 vaginata was found on every hill in the Braemar district ; Woodsia 

 hyperhorea was gathered in Glen Isla, Glen Phee, Clova, and on Ben 

 Lawers ; Luzula arcuata was seen on all the lofty summits in the 

 vicinity of Ben-na-Muich-Dhui ; Mulgedium alpinum was detected in 

 considerable quantity on Lochnagar ; also a beautiful variety of Hie- 

 racium alpinum with remarkably long leaves and involucres covered 

 with long white silky hairs : it is H. alpinum var. longi/olium of * Flora 

 Silesia.' In the vicinity of Ballater, and also in Glen Tilt, Equisetum 

 umbrosum grew in profusion. The sides of Loch Etichan and the 

 rocks near Loch Aven were covered with numerous alpine varieties 

 of Hieracia, presenting remarkable transition forms : among them 

 were H. alpinum, Halleri, nigrescens, Lawsoni, &c. Orobus niger 

 was gathered at the Pass of Killiecrankie. 



Dr. Balfour then made some remarks on the progress of vegetation 

 in the vicinity of Edinburgh and the injury done by the late frost, in 

 the course of which he stated that Galanthus nivalis was in flower in 

 the Botanic Garden, and Eranthis hyemalis in Dr. Neill's garden on 

 the 10th inst. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE COMMON FLEA (PULEX IRRITANS). 



Everybody knows that common domestic insect, the flea ; but it is 

 not everybody who knows that it undergoes a series of changes as 

 singular as those of the butterfly or beetle ; being first a minute Qg^, 

 then a long slender w^orm-like larva, then an inactive pupa inclosed 

 within a cocoon spun by the larva ; and lastly, the perfect flea itself. 

 My object in this article is to describe these transformations, and to 

 add a practical suggestion for the easy destruction of these little pests. 



During the course of the past summer, having dropped a very minute 

 insect on the floor of my library, close to the spot where one of my 

 spaniels is in the habit of lying near my feet, I was obliged, in order 

 to find it, to sweep the carpet very carefully with a fine brush upon 

 a piece of white paper. By doing this I found my specimen ; but I 

 also discovered a number of very small, white, worm-like larvae, 

 which I immediately recognised as those of the common flea. I 

 was not sorry to make this discovery, being anxious to examine the 

 structure of this larva, and especially that of the parts of its mouth 

 (hitherto undescribed), in consequence of the interesting position 

 which the perfect insect occupies in the classification of hexapod in- 

 sects, forming, as it does, a separate order, to which the name of 

 Aphaniptera has been applied, from no wings being visible upon the 

 insect, although their representatives exist in the shape of two flat- 

 tened scales on the sides of the body attached to the proper wing- 

 bearing segment. 



The female flea deposits about a dozen white, slimy eggs of an 

 oval form (fig. a, one of the eggs very highly magnified), and which 

 are of a rather large size in proportion to that of the parent insect. 

 The larvae are hatched in summer at the end of five or six days. They 

 are at first white, but subsequently assume a slight reddish tinge. 



