THE YOUNG NATURmST. 



175 



tlie name. I have never been able 

 to verify tliis statement and think it 

 exceedingfy unlikely. Locally the 

 fruit of the rose is called dog heps/' 

 and the fruit of the hawthorn "cat 

 haws." The term "hep" Anglo-saxon 

 lieope has been traced to the same 

 root as jujube, the fruit of a spiny 

 oriental shrub, and now applied to 

 conserves and sweet-meats ; and julep 

 is literally rose-water ^ from the Persian 

 gul rose, ah water. In the passage 

 " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or 

 figs of thistles," the word thistles has 

 been more correctly translated briers, 

 when " hips" and " figs" would be 

 forcibly contrasted. The plant trans- 

 lated rose in Scripture, as the rose of 

 Sharon, is believed to be the polyanthus 

 narcissus [N, Tazetta), The so-called 

 rose of Jericho has no affinity with the 

 true roses, but is a cruciferous annual 

 plant. When it is mature in Summer, 

 the stems and leaves shrivel up, and 

 the plant rolls itself into a ball, which 

 is blown over the dry plains to expand 

 and scatter its seeds when the rain 

 comes. Although so abundant and 

 generally distributed in the northern 

 hemisphere, roses are unknown south 

 of the Equator ; they prefer a warm 

 temperate climate, and stop short at 

 the tropics. They are very rare in 

 America, and nowhere are they more 

 luxuriant than in our own country — 



" Where the rose in all its pride, 

 Decks the hollow dingle side." 



NOTES ON COLEOPTERA, 

 FOR BEGINNERS. 



By Dr. J. W. Ellis and Mr. Smedley, 

 Liverpool. 



(Continued from page i6i.) 



AMARA. ' 



This genus — a very puzzling one to most 

 beginners — contains about twenty-six British 

 species, but several of these have occurred 

 so rarely that only a very short notice of 

 them will be required. The genus is very 

 naturally divided into two groups which 

 differ considerably in their habits, for, 

 whereas the species of the first group, con- 

 sisting of those which have the thorax 

 narrowed behind the middle, are nocturnal 

 in their habits and frequent herbage — from 

 which they are often brushed by the sweep- 

 ing net, — the members of the second group, 

 or, at least, of the commoner sub-group, 

 commencing at tibialis, are all sun-loving 

 insects, and are most frequently met with 

 on dry sandy ground, or on pathways, and 

 are immediately recognised by their shining 

 bronze colours. In this group the thorax 

 is never narrower behind than in the middle. 



Group A. — Thorax narrower at the base 

 than in the middle (Bradytus ), 



a. — Colour of the upper side yellowish 

 brown or reddish. Size, about 4 lines 



A fulva. 



h. — Colour of the upper side pitchy black. 



1. Size not over 4 lines 



A apricaria and A consularis. 

 Apricaria is easily distinguished from 

 consularis by its smaller size (3 to 33- lines) 

 and by having the striae on the elytra not 

 punctured at the apex Cons7ilaris has the 

 striae deeply punctured throughout and mea- 

 sures about 4 lines. 



2. Size, 5 to 6 lines 



A spinipes and A. convexiusculd. 



