SEPTEMBER. 
289 
C. — I have seen a shrub^ lately, bearing thick clusters of 
small berries of a brilliant scarlet^ on the ends of the twigs : 
the leaves handsomely pinnate. 
F, — That is the Sumach ( Rhus Typhinum ) : it is 
somewhat rare here ; it keeps its handsome spikes of berries 
all the winter^ whence it is cherished as an ornamental 
shrub ; the berries are extremely acid. Sumach is used in 
tanning the finer kinds of leather. The Wild Goose- 
berry ( Ribes Cynosbati) is ripe ; the fruit is dark, dull red^, 
very sweet, but armed with formidable spines. You may 
have observed at the edge of yon willow and poplar woods, 
a thicket of brambles^ consisting of long tall shoots so closely 
entangled, and so beset at every point with exceedingly 
sharp and strong spines, that there is no penetrating it. It 
is called here the Blackberry ( Ruhus Hispidus J : the fruit 
is sweet, but dry^ and rather insipid ; and by no means 
worth the pain and toil of procuring it. 
C — The wild raspberries are now in full ripeness and 
flavour ; the bushes are crowded with them. Numbers of 
bugS;, shaped like a tortoise^ with a convex back ( Scutellera ), 
and other kinds^ resort to them ; and we often take these 
into our mouths with the fruit ; but the horribly pungent 
smell and taste soon discover to us the difference between a 
bug and a raspberry* 
F, — I once saw a largish Cimex ( Coreus Ordinatus ? 
which^ when molested^, suddenly ejected so powerful an 
effluvium^ that the water ran out of my eyes, and they 
smarted as if an onion had been cut under them. This 
power is, I suppose, their means of defence. 
C. — Here is a curious Ichneumon ; it is of a polished 
black, the abdomen is very long, the first five segments being 
each one third of an inch in length, 
F, — It is the Needle Ichneumon ( Pelecinus Polycera- 
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