FowLEE : Lincolnshire Maritime Plants. 1 49 



manner, a most certain and formidable weapon. It would seem to be 

 capable of piercin^g the most stalwart barrier of defence, and is 

 wielded in a remarkably subtile and agile manner by its possessor. 

 According to Reaumur it is " able to raise or depress it, and bend it 

 in various directions." The insect often uses the foreleg with which 

 to guide its ovipositor, in case of a difficult or invulnerable obstacle. 

 The cocoons of ichneumons are perhaps as compact in shape as 

 those of any other orders in the insect world. Many lepidoptera^ 

 such as Ghelonia caja, Saturnia carpini, some of the Cuspidates^ the 

 Japanese Attacus {Bombyx) Tama-mdi are remarkably lavish and 

 extravagant in the manufacture of their cocoons, whilst others again 

 are equally slovenly and careless. Most ichneumons, however, show 

 a precision and care characteristic of the gentility of the order, 

 McLauvin, in his fluxionary calculations, could not have had an order 

 better suited for his mathematical experiments. With some insects 

 the cocoons made by the larvae are so differently shaped, that the law 

 of saving material and period is as variously employed as the methods 

 used by those beings are changeable and numerous. But ichneumons 

 would appear to have a more rigid rule of invariable form than most 

 of their compeers. 



(To he continued.) 



LINCOLNSHIRE MARITIME PLAMTS. 

 By Rev. W. Fowler, M.A 



At the close of a short paper on " Lincolnshire Coast Plants," ia 

 the Naturalist for April, 1878, I proposed to trace them at some 

 future time along the banks of the Humber and Trent, as Dr, 

 Parsons had traced the Yorkshire ones along the banks of the Ouse.* 

 As might be expected, a priori^ thera is a general agreement between 

 the results of his observations and the results of my own, the Trent 

 and Ouse being both of them tidal rivers, though, owing to the 

 greater breadth of the Ouse, and its course with relation to the 

 Humber, the salt water probably reaches a higher point in Yorkshire 

 than in Lincolnshire. For an examination of the plants occurring 

 between Grimsby and Killingholme I am indebted to Mr. Cordeaux, 

 of Great Coates ; the banks of the Humber above Killingholme, and 

 those of the Trent to Wildsworth (above Owston Ferry, below 

 Gainsborough) I have myself examined ; and though it is of course 



*■ The i^aper by Dr, Parsons, to which reference is made, api)eared in tlie 

 Naturalist for March, 18.76. 



