206 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



when the garden was once the haunt of the brethren 

 of the Yellow Robe, and irrepressible young saplings 

 with leaves of ruby and green spring up everywhere 

 to perpetuate the Master's memory. But turn to 

 this broad creek and behold in most glorious 

 profusion that other holy plant of Buddhism, the 

 sacred lotus, the Nelumbium speciosum of the botanist. 

 No one who has lived where the lotus blooms 

 can wonder for a moment at the praise that has 

 been lavished upon it. It is at all times beautiful, 

 whether in early May when the young incurled 

 leaves and flower-buds of perfect symmetry rise 

 slowly from their mud-nursery to rest on the surface 

 of the still water ; or in later June when the creek 

 is aglow with rosy blossoms in all stages of growth ; 

 or even in early August when the last of the great 

 petals bestrew the surface of the creek, and the 

 golden stamens fall away, and the unique fruit-case 

 alone is left maturing, each little anise-scented 

 fruit attaining perfection in its own separate cubicle, 

 until the surrounding tissue decays and the fruitlets 

 drop to the bottom of the creek and rest there 

 until May comes round again. 



Near by, in other creeks, grow the red and 

 white water-lilies, the smaller Nymphaa lotus, whose 

 leaves and flowers have a beauty of their own, but 



quite distinct from the charms of the lotus, as the 

 untravelled may readily see in the water-lily house 

 at Kew, where Nelumbium and Nymphcea grow side 

 by side. But the lotus and the water-lilies are not 

 the only creek-dwellers in our Siamese garden. If 

 some care were not exercised in clearing the great 

 creeks occasionally, lotus and lily would soon 

 disappear in the unequal struggle against stronger 

 forms of aquatic life. In the many neglected 

 smaller creeks, the weeds have it all their own 

 way, and what a wealth of native plant-life is 

 there ! Blue Monochoria, white Sagittaria, yellow 

 Alisma, Utricularia, and a diminutive white 

 Nymphaa, no bigger than the Ranunculus aquatilis 

 of our home streams, — these and crowds of Pistia 

 straiiotes, with smaller floating weeds, transform 

 every choked -up creek into a well of fascinating 

 mystery. As the years of neglect roll on and the 

 Menam's tidal throb is more and more feebly felt 

 in these far-off forgotten creeks, the abundance 

 and variety of water-life increases. The struggle 

 becomes daily fiercer, and one wonders what the 

 end -will be, whether Alisma or Pistia will triumph 

 finally over all meaner rivals. 



[To be continued.) 



NETTLE-TAPS FREQUENTING CROCUS-FLOWERS. 



POME time ago the Rev. H. M. Mapleton, of 

 Badgworth, Somerset, mentioned in a letter 

 that a little moth was in the habit of frequenting in 

 numbers the autumn flowering species of crocus, 

 growing in his garden. I asked Mr. Mapleton to 

 forward to me specimens, which he kindly did on 

 October 5th. I find these little lepidoptera are 

 Symnthis pariana, one of the Tortrices, and the 

 rarer or more local of what are more popularly 

 known as the two " nettle-taps." Mr. Mapleton 

 first wrote to Mr. C. A. Briggs as follows: "I 

 have long intended to ask if you know and have 

 the Crocus speciosus, and, if so, whether you have 

 observed how it is frequented by a little moth that 

 I have never observed on any other plant. Crocus 

 speciosus flowers in the autumn, and each year I see 

 these little moths frequenting it in numbers. They 

 take no notice of Crocus nudijlora, which is close by, 

 nor yet of C. satirus (the saffron), only a few yards 

 off, nor yet of Colchicum autumnale. We have been 

 much interested in watching their visits to this 

 particular crocus, which each year they have 

 regularly visited without fail since I first observed 

 it." Writing to me on October 5th, Mr. Mapleton 

 says: "I have procured three specimens of the 

 little moth I had observed frequenting the blossoms 

 of Crocus speciosus, and forward them to you. This 

 year I have seen reasons to change my opinion as 



to their confining their visits to that particular 

 species of crocus, as I have seen a few occasional 

 visits to Crocus nudiflorus, and now and then to 

 Colchicum autumnale. They show a marked prefer- 

 ence for C. speciosus, for while there are many about 

 it, a fair-sized patch of C. nudijlora has only 

 occasionally attracted one or two, though the 

 plants of both species are barely a yard apart. I 

 have observed a few settle on flowers of a kind of 

 Michaelmas-daisy (Astor), which are generally 

 covered with flies and bees. Until this year I had 

 never observed these little creatures on any other 

 plant but C. speciosus, though I had looked for 

 them. This season the flowering of the crocus 

 was later than usual, but no sooner was a blossom 

 half open than it was visited by two or three of the 

 moths." I am not aware that any similar observa- 

 tion of this character has been recorded. It may 

 form a clue for those entomologists who have these 

 scarce moths in their neighbourhood to more 

 easily obtain specimens. The usual manner of 

 capturing them is with a net whilst flying over 

 nettles, but more frequently they may be taken at 

 rest upon the palings of a wooden fence, in the 

 neighbourhood of nettles. It thus occurs in 

 autumn, sparingly, upon the well-known fence on 

 the west side of Dartford Heath. 



John T. Carrington. 



