﻿66 FIEED AN H FOREST. 



The Colorado Beetle. — Apropos of the fact that the potato bee- 

 tle has appeared upon Block Island without, perceptible means of fer- 

 riage from the mainland, the New London Telegram says that the cap- 

 tain of a New London vessel reports being boarded while at sea by 

 the genuine Colorado beetle, and they came in such numbers as to 

 necessitate the closing of the hatches. Those who regard this as a 

 rather improbable story are informed that at Millstone and other 

 places, for some time past, the pest of the country has come in on the 

 waves by the million. Only a few miles out of town they can be 

 found on the shore, washed in, but still living, in such immense num- 

 bers that the stench coming from them fairly poisons the ^.—Nor- 

 wich Bulletin. 



We cannot say how accurate the above report may be, but in re- 

 gard to the first two lines we can say that having spent some little 

 time upon the island mentioned, in August, we have very serious doubts. 

 Diligent inquiries were made at each end of the island, of tillers of 

 the soil, in regard to the presence of the pest, and as to whether any 

 damage had been done to the potato crop, but the good people were 

 not only in blessed ignorance of the existence of such a creature, but 

 had noticed nothing eating the vines. In one of the fields we passed 

 through, the tops were all dead, but they certainly had died "a natural 

 death." 



Block Island is thirty miles from the Rhode Island coast, and only 

 has regular steamer communication with the mainland about two or 

 three months in the year. A catalogue of its Insect fauna would 

 make quite a respectable pamphlet, but we doubt at present if the 

 Doryphora io-lineata could be inserted. — C. R. D. 



Second Blossoming.— An Arbre Courbe pear tree in the grounds 

 of the Department of Agriculture has just blossomed (September, 8th) 

 for the second time this season. The first set of leaves and fruit were 

 destroyed by a small fungus, in July, and mostly dropped off, and the 

 present show of young leaves and blossoms would seem like a prema- 

 ture development of buds, properly belonging to the next season. — 

 W. H. S. 



Tipularia discolor. — Mr. L. F. Ward of the Naturalists' Club 

 has succeeded this season in discovering a locality where an abun- 

 dance of this rare and interesting Orchis can be obtained in the flow- 

 ering state. As is well known to the members of the club, this 

 plant is common enough during the season of the year when the con- 





