i6 
NATURE NOTES 
company with Red Admirals ( Vanessa atalan/a), which, however, more commonly 
affect the Michaelmas Daisies. 
Dulwich, October i, 1903. M. J. T. 
[Whilst in the summer there were accounts of the scarcity of certain speciesof 
butterflies, the two autumn species to which our correspondent refers have cer- 
tainly been abundant in the London area during the past year. V. alalanla 
usually appears on the windfall autumn pears ; but this year, just about the same 
date as that of our correspondent’s letter, some one wrote to the Daily Mail to 
record these two species in Hyde Park ; we ourselves saw them at the Horti- 
cultural Society’s Garden at Chiswick, on September 29, on Rudbeckia and 
Seditm spectabile, and in October we saw C. cardui on Ditton Marsh, and a day 
or two before V. atalanta in Powis Square, Bayswater. — Ed. N.N.'\. 
73. Butterflies at Electric Light.— On September 19 I captured two 
Painted Lady Butterflies, one at half-past nine o’clock and one at a quarter past 
eleven the same night, at electric lamps in the High Road, Kilburn ; also another 
one on September 24, at nine o’clock in the evening. There were several others 
which I could not capture. Is this not very unusual ? I have the Peacock and 
the Red Admiral not yet emerged from the pupa. This is very late. This 
season seems to have quite led even the insect world astray. Have any of your 
other readers noticed such curious phenomena ? 
31, Kilburn Priory, N. W. Wakerley. 
October c), 1903 . 
74. How the Sea Aster Travels.— Natural history in our colonies 
seems to be of a very simple character but none the less interesting, as the 
following paragraph will illustrate. From the Barbados Daily News I quote 
the following : “ The species of Sea Aster (Asteroidea) oftenest found on the coast 
of New Jersey and northward, though not among the most attractive is never- 
theless a very interesting specimen. Generally he is described of a dingy 
or creamy white, striped and dotted with red-brown and above all crowned 
with an abundant spread of pink and white feathery tentacles. Unlike most of 
his race, he does not delight in solitaryand local position, and so seems to have 
caught the spirit of his native land. He seeks new scenes, and not to be behind 
his biped neighbours he prefers that others should feed him. Consequently, the 
sea aster glues himself to the shell of some crab or periwinkle and takes a 
gratuitous ride to any place where it may feel disposed to take him. 
Carlyle Lodge, Canonlmry Place, N., Chas. E. J. Hann'ETT. 
October 2. 
75 . Beech Disease. — I am glad not to share in the fear recently mentioned 
in the Jotirnal of the Royal Horticultural Society, and c)uoted by Mr. Milne- 
Redhead, respecting the approaching doom of the beech owing to the ravages 
of Cryptococcus fagi. All the beech trees on my premises are infested by this 
insect more or less, and have been so for many years. I find they attack the 
small branches, and especially the leaves more than the stem. A beautiful fern- 
leaved beech in front of my hall door is attacked year after year in such a manner 
that I am careful to keep the garden seat at a little distance. Contact with the 
foliage produces a quantity of these very tender aphides, and their sticky, woolly 
bodies leave a mark on a black coat not to be removed by mere brushing. Tiny 
showers of honey-dew are frerpiently to be observed falling from these insects, 
which render it undesirable for those who value their clothes to remain under a 
tree where the Cryptococcus is installed. In spite of them my beeches are in 
apparently vigorous health. One certainly died two years ago, but I attributed 
its death to drought, and it was not more attacked by the aphis than the others. 
This remark aiiplies, as far as I can ascertain, to the dead beeches round Thetford. 
Our box trees are frequently covered with a woolly aphis. Judging by the deposit 
of honey-dew, lime tiees are more infested by aphis than beeches, and yet they 
show no signs of being killed. My plum trees are by far the greatest sufferers 
from the attacks of aphis of an ashy hue, but not woolly. 
October, 1903. Edmund Tiios. Dauheny. 
76. Late Flowering Plants. — When walking in my garden on one of 
the few fine days we have had lately, I was surprised to see so many plants still 
