150 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST 
and eating. In Newfoundland^, a Red Currant (Ribes Rin- 
gens is common^ which is covered with hair, and has a very 
strong, unpleasant smell and taste. The stem and twigs, too, 
are thickly beset with brown hair. 
C. — As we approach the river, the willows become 
abundant ; their long shoots are quite green with the open- 
ing leaves. 
F, — The Willows (Salix) of which there are forty 
species, natives of North America, leaf, like the Poplars, 
with great rapidity. They delight in marshy situations, 
and will not usually thrive except in the vicinity of water. 
Generally speaking, the willows have more the appearance 
of shrubs than trees, rarely growing to any considerable 
height, and commonly dividing at the root into many di- 
verging branches ; yet there is, on the road to Sherbrooke, 
within about a mile of that town, a willow, which is a lofty 
tree, being, I should think, not less than fifty feet in height. 
C. — The Dayflies (Ephemera J fly now in the evenings : 
two of them, with dark wings, flew in at my open window 
last night, which, I see this morning, have sloughed their 
skins, and obtained perfectly hyaline wings. The Red and 
Yellow Sphex of Newfoundland f Nomada Americana ) 
is now to be found ; I saw one yesterday hovering about 
ploughed ground, and peeping into every little hole. Large 
dragonfly grubs are abundant at the bottom of brooks and 
ponds. I caught an Azure Butterfly ( Rolyommatus Lucia J, 
with the upper wings having a broad border of black : 
from its distended abdomen, I supposed it was a female. 
Many beetles crawl about the grass and under stones, among 
which the Purple Carab ( Carabus Catena ) and the Copper- 
spot ( Calosoma Calidum) are numerous. In fact, insects 
of all orders have ended their winter's repose, and meet us at 
every step. 
