Briefer Articles. =P) 
rieties of coleoptera; one hundred and eighty-six species and 
twenty-seven varieties of butterflies; five hundred and seventy- 
three species and four varieties of moths: ten crustaceans; thirty- 
four species of arachnida (spiders, etc); and the other classes 
of invertebrates are well represented. 

Piimrnnk ARTICLES: 
- PROTECTIVE CoOLoRING.—I made a little experiment lately 
with some larve of vanessa urtia. They were placed ina rose 
arbor, of course in the shade ; the chrysalids were nearly black, 
with but little gold marking. I then removed the remaining 
caterpillars in the cage to my greenhouse and the chrysalids 
produced were very light, pinkish, and freely marked with gold 
—the different light ea causing this difference in the 
tint. J. Jenner Weir 
BECKENHAM, ENGLAND, in Report C. B. A. 
CoLors IN PLANT LiFrE.—I have often meant to ask whether 
you have ever noticed that in gooseberry bushes which bear 
yellow fruit the leaves turn yellow in autumn, and in those which 
bear red berries the leaves turn red. I have noticed this, and 
wondered whether there was any reason for it. Another ob- 
servation of mine is that at different periods of the year there is 
generally a predominant color among wild flowers, or so it 
seemed to me at Ewhurst. For instance, first. I think, comes 
a yellow period—primroses, lesser celandine, tussilago, etc.; then 
a purpleor lilac period—wistaria, lilac, purple orchids, etc. ; ‘next, 
a red period—ragged robin, rose, campion, and geranium. I am 
not quite sure where the others come, but think the year winds 
up with yellow again. Does this seem to you mere fancy? Of 
course there are always other colors at the same time, but in 
fewer numbers. LISS AS SSL CHIL. 
ISLEWORTH, ENGLAND, in Report C. B. A. 
THE WHISTLING TREE.—Acacia fistula grows in dense groves 
in Nubia and is known among the natives as the ‘ whistling tree.’ 
It owes its name to the fact thit a gall insect selects for the site 
of its operations the ivory white shoots, which the development’ 
of the larva distorts and causes to swell at the base into a bladder- 
like gall, about an inch in diameter. The insect, upon emerg- 
ing, leaves a circular hole, and the wind playing upon the shoot 
is said then to produce a flute-like sound. 
Amateur Collector. 
Moss MARBLE.—There has been discovered, four miles south 
of Rattlesnake springs, Washington Territory, an extensive ledge 
of marble, in which beautiful trees or plants of moss are as fre- 
quent and as clearly defined as in the moss agate, though the 
marble is nof translucent. The body of the stone is mostly 
white, with splotches of pink and blue between the bunches of 
moss. 
