5 = 



HA RD WJCKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the heap of stones beneath the trees, where the wood 

 scabious is growing in the open with hairy and 

 divided leaves, like its meadow congener, and the 

 larger sorts do congregate. Arcyoptera variegata, 

 with the rosy legs, here hops and hides among the 

 tufted thyme and plantain, and the rattling grass- 

 hopper leaps from the clover tufts on his reddish- 

 orange wings, with a startling rattle, as the indexed 

 margin of the fore-wing rubs on the raised air-vein 

 on the hinder, for its wings were never made to clasp ; 

 his portly self-indulgent female, who hops but little, 

 remains alcoved, toad-like, in the briars. (Edipoda 

 cerulescens, too, here unfurls a crimson wing, while 

 its blue-winged variety, if variety it be, prefers the 

 company of Gomphoccrus rufus on the vineyard path- 

 ways we have left bekrvv, where a drier vegetation 

 may prove to be less acidulated. Let us now cross 

 the bridge constructed in the year 1772, that brings 

 back to life the shade of Rousseau, and which time 

 has fringed with malformed dewberries ; let us climb 



Fig. 40. — The Rattling Locust of Europe, male and female, double-headed daisy, and 

 small scabious with a flower in the axis of the 'eaves. The male (Edipoda stridula, 

 or Rattling Grasshopper, takes flying leaps in ihe woods with a somewhat startling 

 rattle, owing to its wings rubbing together. 



up the steep pathway, overhung in the spring 

 mowings with the Spirea aruncus, where grows the 

 Aposeris fmtida, undistinguishable from the local form 

 of dandelion, but very nauseous ; so till you pluck it 

 the umbellifer leaf is undistinguishable from a fern, 

 situation determining the form. Here in the shade 

 the velvety leaves of the wood scabious are broad 

 and entire, and its reddish heads are quite colonized 

 with invisible insects, one of which the microscope 

 reveals to be a black fly, and beside him sits his 

 orange spouse. 



But what strange shouts are these that jar upon 

 our ears. Das Feuer, voyez-vous, un fuoco, cto | 



takoe. It might really occur that our maidens must 

 have kindled a hearth in the vicinity of that little 

 excavation with a mound in the centre, that has been 

 thought to date from fabulous times ; to the dismay 

 of certain guardian spirits, some mistaken mortal to 

 whom the rock overhead, fashioned like the Pope's 

 cap, and the surrounding hat-like eminences were 

 never metaphysics. But see, here comes one of the 

 party, with downcast look, in search of a tree that 

 she has espied from afar, and which seemed to be 

 hung with roses ; with little doubt an aspen, which 

 is shedding its clam-shell-like leaves at our very feet. 

 Infallibly its autumnal bravery, so suited to recall the 

 ruddy beauty of Miocene, is fated to compose certain 

 fairy chaplets for amateur theatricals, when the 

 mountain blue-bells, so very puzzling to name from 

 Gremli's Flora, are to be hit off with a tea-spoon. 

 • The last car has commenced its picturesque descent 

 from the Jaman and the Naye j a dark green shimmer 

 sleeps on the slopes, and a red reflection beams from 

 scattered- chalets, that pleasure en- 

 vies, and love and piety have framed, 

 we must needs say farewell to these 

 delicious groves. Yet pause awhile. 

 What is this hollow snore that 

 blends with the rushing of the 

 water over the boulders, and the 

 drone of the wind in yonder beechen 

 thicket? One would fairly think 

 that our pretty and spiritual maidens, 

 fresh from their bivouac were en- 

 sconced therein like dormice, and 

 sound asleep. Let us approach 

 softly. Our mutual curiosity has 

 introduced to our notice a legion of 

 crickets. In the rank and wet 

 grass the minutely black wood- 

 crickets with ears on their legs, and 

 a violin on their backs, are hopping 

 like fleas, and now and again, the 

 bulky wart-biter comes tumbling 

 along down the gloaming with a 

 heavy thud ; his wings, we see, are 

 green, when he is tempted by & 

 cornfield into the blaze of the 

 noontide sun ; like the leaves in 

 autumn they commonly change to brown ; griseus,. 

 a born Creole, arises and flutters on its filmy 

 wings. These, one and all, would appear to be the 

 mere satellites of the great snorer Locusta cantans, 

 who is stalking at his leisure over the blackberry 

 leaves, or blubbering out to his females, who are 

 flouncing about in the surrounding herbage. As his 

 notes salute the human ear as it were the jig of the' 

 chucky-stones in a pot-hole, it occurs that the fitful 

 and peevish chree would form a proper interlude to 

 the knife-grinding tune of his long-winged cogener, 

 who must be in fine form behind the garden wall, 

 whence we saw his female take wing and fly as we. 



