316 
Miscellaneous, 
leporina was picked both on Lochnagar and on Cairn Toul ; Carex 
vaginata w^as found on every hill in the Braemar district ; Woodsia 
hyperborea was gathered in Glen Isla, Glen Phee, Clova, and on Ben 
Lawers ; Luzula arcuata was seen on all the lofty summits in the 
vicinity of Ben-na-Muich-Dhui ; Mulgedium alpinum was detected in 
considerable quantity on Lochnagar ; also a beautiful variety of Hie- 
racium alpinum with remarkably long leaves and involucres covered 
with long white silky hairs : it is H. alpinum var. longifolium of ‘ Flora 
Silesia.’ In the vicinity of Ballater, and also in Glen Tilt, Equisetum 
umhrosum grew in profusion. The sides of Loch Etichan and the 
rocks near Loch Aven were covered with numerous alpine varieties 
of Hieracia, presenting remarkable transition torms : among them 
were H. alpinum, Halleri, nigrescens, Lawsoni, &c. Orobus niger 
was gathered at the Pass of Killiecrankie. 
Dr. Balfour then made some remarks on the progress of vegetation 
in the vicinity of Edinburgh and the injury done by the late frost, in 
the course of which he stated that Galanthus nivalis was in flower in 
the Botanic Garden, and Eranthis hyemalis in Dr. Neill’s garden on 
the 10th inst. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
THE COMMON FLEA (PULEX IRRITANS). 
Everybody know's that common domestic insect, the flea ; but it is 
not everybody who knows that it undergoes a series of changes as 
singular as those of the butterfly or beetle ; being first a minute egg, 
then a long slender worm-like larva, then an inactive pupa inclosed 
within a cocoon spun by the larva ; and lastly, the perfect flea itself. 
My object in this article is to describe these transformations, and to 
add a practical suggestion for the easy destruction of these little pests. 
During the course of the past summer, having dropped a very minute 
insect on the floor of my library, close to the spot where one of my 
spaniels is in the habit of lying near my feet, I w^as obliged, in order 
to find it, to sweep the carpet very carefully with a fine brush upon 
a piece of white paper. By doing this I found my specimen ; but I 
also discovered a number of very small, white, worm-like larvae, 
which I immediately recognised as those of the common flea. I 
was not sorry to make this discovery, being anxious to examine the 
structure of this larva, and especially that of the parts of its mouth 
(hitherto undescribed), in consequence of the interesting position 
which the perfect insect occupies in the classification of hexapod in- 
sects, forming, as it does, a separate order, to which the name of 
Aphaniptera has been applied, from no wings being visible upon the 
insect, although their representatives exist in the shape of two flat- 
tened scales on the sides of the body attached to the proper w’ing- 
bearing segment. 
The female flea deposits about a dozen w'hite, slimy eggs of an 
oval form (fig. a, one of the eggs very highly magnified), and wdiich 
are of a rather large size in proportion to that of the parent insect. 
"I’he larvae are hatched in summer at the end of five or six days. They 
are at first white, but subsequently assume a slight reddish tinge. 
