THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



September 



brief can Mr. Tutt or any of his immigrationist friends adduce one 

 solitary scrap of direct evidence, that a single Galii, ever crossed the 

 channel ? 



Mr. Tutt finally asks me a question which he seems to think will 

 settle the matter. Why did the imagines from the collected and 

 forced pupae emerge, and those left to nature perish ? I reply that 

 the collected pupae produced imagines because they were shielded 

 from all those influences, mainly I believe atmospheric, which accord- 

 ing to my theory so prejudicially affect this species during some 

 portion or the whole of its career. Moreover we have no proof that- 

 all the pupae left to themselves died. All we know is that the 

 generation 1888-9 failed to perpetrate itself in anything like its own 

 numbers. Why it failed we do not know. In most of the problems 

 of biology, what we are most certain of is our own ignorance ; we 

 know hardly any of the factors, and how can we solve the sum. But 

 if such questions are ever to be answered, it will, I think, be by long 

 continued, close, systematic observation, by patient work, and not by 

 the promulgation of theories unsupported by the smallest foundation 

 of fact. 



Ledsham, Cheshire, August, 1890. 



FLOWER SHOWS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



By W. HERBERT SMITH. 



One day, whilst walking along a pleasant lane in the South-West 

 corner of Durham County, I overtook a young man of intelligent 

 appearance who carried a leather bag with the name of a Coal 

 Company inscribed thereon ; he was evidently a cohiery official of some 

 kind. As we walked along I endeavoured to elicit his impressions of 

 the natural phenomena we encountered. He said, '• I never bother 

 my head with these things"; but a short time after, as if to let me see 

 that he did not keep his eyes quite shut, he pointed to a fine plant of 

 fox-glove, an . 1 srid " those bluebells are very fine, I always admire 

 them." " But they are purple," I said, "and this tiny blue flower at 

 our feet is the bluebell, the other is the fox or folk's glove, referring 



