LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
85 
it tumbles over and over in a very grotesque 
manner, when one endeavours to touch it, so that 
it is not easy to get hold of it. 
Some little beetles resort to the heads of flowers, 
especially the syngenesious ones, among whose 
anthers they riot and revel, and almost cover 
themselves with the powdery farina. In their 
brighter colours and more active habits, and in a 
greater readiness to take wing, they seem more 
suited to the flowers they frequent, than the dark 
dorrs that nocturnally crawl over the earth. One 
little Getonia^ whose brown elytra are elegantly 
'marked with white spots, gives out a very fragrant 
smell. Another [Trichms delta) has the thorax 
handsomely ornamented with a snow-white tri- 
angle. A third {Tetraopes tornatGr) is glossy crim- 
son, with two black dots on each of the elytra, and 
four on the thorax. These three, with others, 
delight to bask on the prairie flowers, in company 
with the butterflies, beneath the beams of noon. 
There is a handsome plant in the garden, trained 
over a lattice arbour, which it profusely covers 
with a luxuriant foliage of pinnate leaves. It is 
called the Virgin’s Bower, but erroneously, as that 
name belongs to a species of Clematis ; I believe 
it is rather Glycine frutescens, I have already in- 
timated that it is a climbing plant, several stems as 
big as a man’s thumb twisting round each other 
like a cable, so tight that a knife could scarce be 
thrust between. It bears a long and thick spike of 
flowers, of a pink or lilac colour, of pleasant odour. 
About a fortnight ago I observed in several places 
two or three of the leaves fastened together, and 
lined with a coating of silk, making a very snug 
tent ; in each one of these leaf-tents was a singular- 
