1804.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



61 



is not included either in the Glasgow or Aberdeen lists in my possession. 

 Stainton gives a long list of localities in the " Manual," but the most 

 northerly appear to be " Darlington, Manchester, York and Scarborough 

 (very common).'' So that even such a common species as this appears to 

 get rare in our more northern latitudes, although it is almost sure to occur 

 freely in some parts of Scotland, as it is fairly common in certain parts of 

 Scandinavia. Drs. Staudinger and Wocke give as its range: — "Europe 

 (except the- Polar region and Spain), Armenia, Siberia (west) " 

 (" Catalog," p. 345)- 



Time of Appearance — The species appears from the middle of May 

 until August, and there is possibly a partial second brood from the 

 moths which are the earliest to emerge, although the species on the 

 whole appears to be only single brooded. The May specimens are very 

 infrequent, but the moth is abundant in June, July and August continu- 

 ously, and I have always supposed, although I have no actual proof of 

 the matter, that part of the larvae from the eggs laid by the May moths 

 usually feed up rapidly and emerge in late July or August, whilst part 

 hibernate w T ith the larvae from the later moths. This is so generally 

 the case with moths whose appearance is spread over a considerable 

 period of time and whose larvae hybernate that there is very good reason 

 for supposing it may be so with this. 



BYWAYS OF BOTANY: CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS. 



BY J. W. SOUTTER. 



L 



As in exploring a country or a district we find that we get a 

 better insight into its physical features, and its natural beauties, by 

 leaving the beaten tracks or highways, which, useful as they are in 

 getting over theg round, are yet in themselves frequently dry, arid, 

 and uninteresting ; but as by turning aside into the unfrequented lanes 

 or footpaths we unexpectedly come upon hidden nooks of surpassing 

 beauty — charming corners of lovely scenery — which the ordinary routine 

 tourist misses entirely ; so in the study of science, it is these more 

 obscure and untrodden bypaths that furnish the student with his rarest 

 insight into the marvellous variety of devices whereby mother Nature 

 attains her ends. So in considering the structure of cleistogamous 

 flowers, we endeavour to traverse one of the less beaten paths, one 

 readily overlooked, but none the less fascinating. 



Cleistogamous, from the Greek k\=i<jtoc; {kleistos), hidden, and yocfxog 

 (ga??ios), marriage, is applied to those plants in which the organs and 



