160 The Museum Gazette 



September. They have to find their way to a home quite 

 new to them and that wholly without guidance. As autumn 

 approaches they will be warned, probably by lack of food, 

 that something must be done, and having, without misgiving, 

 taken to wing will be astonished and dismayed to find that 

 the land communication between England and France which 

 existed in the days of their far remote ancestors is no longer 

 available. They will gather together in wondering vexation 

 in the copses on our south-eastern shores, especially favouring 

 Folkestone and some miles north and south. For them, how- 

 ever, no Channel-packet waits, and they will long gaze in 

 dismay at the waste of water which confronts them. They 

 will clear these copses to the last caterpillar, and at length 

 taking counsel of despair, and with courage reinforced by the 

 concealment of danger which dark nights afford, they will 

 depart ; the strongest first, the younger and weakest later on. 

 Some, enfeebled possibly by too long waiting on short 

 supplies of food, will drop into the sea, and a few others may 

 possibly perish by dashing themselves against a lighthouse 

 or attempting to enter some light-displaying window. The 

 majority, however, will have attained their end, and for them 

 the rest of the journey is easy. It may probably be preluded 

 by a deep though unuttered vow never to subject themselves 

 to like dangers again. They will then fly south by easy stages 

 over the pleasant fields of France, resting when and where 

 they please. 



The Tobacco plant is now in flower. Its petunia-like blooms 

 may be seen in most gardens, for it will thrive even in city 

 squares. Gather a flower, and with a pen-knife carefully slit 

 open the long tube of its corolla from bottom to top. A very 

 curious arrangement of its stamens will be observed. Their 

 filaments adhere to the corolla, and at about two-thirds up 

 they all present knees, which projecting inwards meet in the 

 centre and effectually close the tube. Above these "knees" 

 you will observe four or five disappointed little beetles which 



