708 Insects fyc. 



Polyommati. I did not find the Thecla numerous anywhere but at 

 that particular spot near King's landing. 



Beautiful flowers, of varied colours and fragrant perfume, thronged 

 the edges of the forest, and the road-sides : especially in the corners 

 of the fences, which are almost wholly made of rails set up in the zig- 

 zag fashion so general in the north, commonly called a Virginia fence. 

 In the angles of these fences, there is always a dense and rank mass 

 of vegetation, and many handsome flowers attain a luxuriance there, 

 which is not seen elsewhere. The beautiful scarlet woodbine {Capri- 

 folium semper vir ens) grew in profuse splendour among the bushes, 

 its flowers being no less remarkable for fragrance than for elegance of 

 form and brilliancy of colour. I found that it possessed attractions, 

 not only for man ; for having gathered a spike, it was visited, even 

 while in my hand, by a fine butterfly {Colias Eubule, Boisd.), which 

 instantly began probing the deep tubular blossoms with its sucker ; so 

 eager was it to gratify its appetite, that without any trouble I caught 

 it in my fingers. 



Many romantic little spots occurred in the course of my walk, es- 

 pecially where some little brook crossed the road, making, where it 

 emerged from, and again entered, the forest, pretty shady glens, so 

 sombre with the bushes, whose overarching tops touched each other 

 overhead, and whose verdant and leafy branches seemed like an im- 

 penetrable wall, that the rays of an almost vertical sun were effectually 

 shut out. In these cool retreats, and I saw several such, the emerald 

 virgin dragonfly (Agrion Virginica) delights to dwell. All the dra- 

 gonfly tribe, as they are water insects in their first stages, are observed 

 to prefer hawking in the vicinity of water, as affording in abundance 

 the prey which they pursue, but the open pond or broad river is most 

 generally their resort. But he who would see the emerald virgin, 

 must go to some such hidden brook as I have described, over which, 

 as it flows silently in a deep soft bed of moss of the richest green, or 

 brawls over a pebbly bottom, with impotent rage, three or four of these 

 lovely insects may be seen at almost any hour, on any summer day. 

 It is indeed a fly of surpassing elegance and beauty : the male es- 

 pecially, whose long and slender body is of a metallic green, so reful- 

 gent that no colour can convey an idea of it. This green hue becomes 

 a deep blue, if held so as to reflect the rays of light falling on it, at a 

 very obtuse angle : a property common to the green hue of many in- 

 sects and some birds : the eyes are glossy, round and prominent : the 

 wings broad, filmy and minutely netted, of a uniform purplish black, 

 The female might easily be supposed to be of a different species ; it 



