THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
53 
seeds and piuk-colouved flowers, bearing 
the marks of the class Octandria and order 
Monogynia , and the generic characters 
were as follows : — Calyx superior, 4-par- 
tite; segments free, deciduous; petals 4 ; 
capsule elongated, 4-seeded, 4-celled, 
4-valved, and many seeded ; seeds with a 
tuft of hairs at one extremity, — and the 
plant agreed with the genus Epilobium, 
according to the synoptical table of the 
Linnsean system in the above-mentioned 
Flora. At page 111 the genus Epilo- 
bium is divided into three sections; and 
as the plant had a 3-cleft stigma it 
belonged to the second section. The 
second section contains three species : 
lirst, mon tana ; leaves shortly petiolate, 
glabrous, all toothed : second, parvijlo- 
rum; leaves sessile, lanceolate, slightly 
toothed : third, hirsulum ; leaves serni- 
amplexicaul, ovato-lanceolate, deeply 
serrated, hairy ; stem very much 
branched, hairy ; root creeping. And as 
the plant agreed with the third species 
the name was j Epilobium hirsulum. 
Then let us adhere to the precepts of 
scientific men, though the path may be 
as if beset with briars, crossed with 
streams, and impeded with declivities; 
let us unite our efforts in removing those 
briars, in assisting each other in crossing 
the streams, and making steps in the de- 
clivities: by so doing we shall be able to 
bring science and labour into the valleys, 
on the plains, and upon the mountains, 
of the midland counties. — H enky Scott, 
Labourer, Eave’s Lane, Charley , Lan- 
cashire ; February 12, 1857. 
COLEOPTEEA. 
There is a region which all Coleop- 
terists, at some time or other of their 
lives, should visit; and if so be that ever 
the re-enactment of the great code of our 
entomological laws should devolve upon 
us, we would make it a sine qua non 
that no collector should be regarded as a 
“ Coleopterist” at all until he had made 
himself practically acquainted with that 
abode of bliss. It is, of course, to the 
fens of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon- 
shire that we allude, those superb flats 
known locally (in a general sense) as the 
“ Bedford Level,” and throughout Cock- 
neydom as the “ Whittlesea Mere dis- 
trict.” It was once a glorious tract, but 
the ruthless hand of so called agricultu- 
ral science (!) has laid waste its fair 
places, and has studded in these latter 
days with degenerate corn-fields and 
cabbage-grounds those looming, bittern- 
peopled swamps, which the patriarchs of 
even the present generation can recall 
with such exquisite delight. Beloved 
Whittlesea ! how does the heart of a Co- 
leopterist rise into his very throat with 
indignation, to think that thou art no 
more. Thy broad expanse of waters, 
which once formed the nucleus of all 
that could be desired, have been (mark 
the word) drained away , and the deep 
black “ lodes” which emptied themselves 
into it, up which the flat-bottomed boats 
used to steal noiselessly along between 
the towering reeds, and which were so 
deep and so black, that if ever you 
chanced to be upset you sank straight to 
the bottom and were never heard of any 
more, have dwindled into mere ditches, 
truly pitiable and ludicrous to behold. 
But if this wondrous region was thus 
emphatically good within comparatively 
recent days, what was it in the times of 
our sainted forefathers? It was abso- 
lutely divine. Henry of Huntingdon, 
in the reign of Stephen (a.d. 1135), 
described it as pleasant and agreeable to 
the eye, and watered by many rivers which 
ran through it, diversified by many large 
and small lakes, and adorned with many 
woods and islands. And William of 
Malmesbury, in the reign of Henry II. 
(a.d. 1154), in writing of the lands 
round Thorney, says “ It is a very para- 
dise in pleasure and delight, — it resem- 
