202 LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
up like slender tendrils. In the time of flowering, 
which is rather earlier than this, it shoots np a 
flower-stalk to the height of four or five feet, 
crowded with noble white blossoms, much resem- 
bling those of the former. 
I must now announce the fashionable arrivals in 
the insect world. A handsome Chafer [Oymnetis 
nitida) flies in some numbers around the peach- 
trees during the heat of the day. Though it rarely 
appears before July, it is called . here the June 
Bug, the term bug being universally misapplied 
by the Americans to beetles. It is about the 
size of the common Rose Chafer [Getonia aurata) 
of England, to which it bears a general resem- 
blance ; but the soft rich metallic green of the pre- 
sent species is far superior in brilliancy to the hue 
of the other ; a good deal of the splendour, how- 
ever, vanishes as soon as life is extinct. 
The Tiger Swallow-tail Butterfly [Papilio Tur-^ 
nus)^ so numerous in Canada, and extending even 
to Newfoundland, has lately come under my notice ; 
and a still older acquaintance, the Admirable, or 
Red Admiral of English collectors ( Vanessa ata- 
lanta)y a denizen also of both the northern coun- 
tries I have just named, as well as of most parts 
of the Old World. Here, however, it appears to 
be a great rarity, and the former is by no means 
common. 
I have taken specimens of a large black Click 
Beetle [Alans oculatus)^ marked with irregular 
white dots, having on the thorax two large oval 
spots, which are velvety, and intensely black, sur- 
rounded by a white edge. As the insect is more 
than an inch and a half in length, these spots ren- 
der it very conspicuous. 
