think that very few know much of 
their life history and peculiarities, or 
even their names. We therefore pro 
pose to give a series of short articles 
on those which are most often noticed, 
or are specially worthy of notice, in 
the hope that it may arouse a little in- 
terest in these beauties of nature. 
NOTES. 
Mr. T. Charlton, of Westcliffe, has 
a most interesting collection of fossils 
which he found in the Huerfano, and 
about which he wil} probably have 
something to say in our columns later 
on. These fossils are of Marine ori- 
gin, and are relics of the time when 
the sea washed where Colorado now 
is. Among them are teeth of at least 
two genera of sharks-(Lamna and an* 
other.) 
It is a curious and interesting fact 
.that the chrysalids and cocoons 
certain butterflies and moths vary in 
color according to the situation in 
which they are found, presumably for 
the sake of protective resemblance. 
Mr. J. Jenner Weir, writing from 
Beckenham, England, relates an ex- 
perience of his with Vanessa urticae, a 
butterfly much resembling Vanessa 
milbertii of Colorado, as follows: “I 
made a little experiment lately with 
some larvae of Vanessa urticae: they 
were placed in a rose arbor, of course 
in the shade; the chrysalids were 
nearly black, with but little gold 
marking. I then removed the re 
maining caterpillars, cage and all, to 
my greenhouse; the chrysalids pro- 
duced were very light, pinkish and 
golden marked; the difference of light 
appeared sufficient to cause this differ- 
ence of tint.” 
Mr. H. W. Nash, of Pueblo, sends 
us a list of sixteen species of butterflies 
which he obtained at Bonanza, Sa- 
guache county, in 1880. The list in- 
cludes Colias meadii, Erebia epipsodea 
and other interesting species, ail of 
which are also known from Custer 
county. The only butterfly known to 
us from Saguache county which is not 
in Mr. Nash’s list, is Lyccena rustica, 
which we took in Cottonwood gulch 
last year. 
It is not generally known that a 
kind of tobacco plant (Nico&ana) 
grows wild in Colorado. We oi^yn- 
ed a spccimerf- on the Sangre^le 
Cristo Range, near^Swift Creek, last 
year. 
The common harebell ^(Campanula 
rotundifoba,) although of deep blue 
color, often turns white in the pro 
cess of drying for the herbarium. 
There is, however, a variety with nat- 
urally white flowers, and it is a most 
curious circumstance, first noticed by 
Mrs. M. E. Cusack, of Wet Mountain 
valley, that the flowers of this white 
variety turn blue in drying. That 
this is actually so cannot be doubted, 
but at present it seems wholly inex- 
plicable, and therefore the more in- 
teresting. 
Mr. Charles F. Morrison writes 
‘•Mr. T. Martin Trippe of Howards- 
vi lie in a letter received adds the 
Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja) to the 
birds of Colorado; a female in full 
spring plumage having been taken a- 
live at Silverton, San Juan county, 
last |une.” This is indeed a note- 
worthy addition to the avifauna of the 
state, though no doubt it was only a 
casual visitor 
Most people would not suppose that 
the green scum of irrigation ditches, 
creeks &c. had any botanical interest. 
Nevertheless, a microscopical exami- 
7 
