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of rustic scenery. In one spot wide and shallow, it ripples with little 
gurgles over the stones in channels divided by tiny islets, in which are 
numerous shoals of silvery minnows disporting themselves in the 
sunshine ; in another, where an old wooden bridge enables the pedes¬ 
trian to cross into the shady lane beyond, the water, though still 
delightfully clear, is deep and smooth, and here, where like aquatic 
streamers float the long submerged grasses, are many fish of large size 
lying close to the muddy bottom of the stream, while in a shallow 
pool beneath the bankside lies the wary jack—motionless, but alert. 
And in these opening days of July what a rich botanical treat awaits 
us in this rural spot ! On yonder bank, rising conspicuously above 
those giant docks and comfreys, we see displayed the purple glories of 
the loosestrife, and near by, the similarly coloured but more retiring 
flower spikes of the marsh woundwort. Down here by the bridge the 
banks are golden with the blossoms of the introduced Mint ulus, well 
established in this spot, where I have noticed it almost every 
summer since 1894. Up by the broad shallows, which in spring were 
white with the cups of the water Hanunculus, those islets are green 
with the many-branched Alima. But more closely connected with 
our immediate purpose are these little groups of long-stemmed plants 
whose rounded leaves are floating just level with the surface of the 
water. Here, on the broad leaves of these water-lilies, are the Donaciae, 
sitting with antenna 1 erect (ike miniature deer, ready to take wing to 
some less accessible spot at the approach of danger. This species, ]>. 
crassipea, which is apparently confined in the Lea Valley to this one 
spot, is, with its broad flat wing-cases and long hind legs, one of the 
most conspicuous of those indigenous to our islands. I find it here in 
two well marked forms, one which lias the elytra greenish-bronze, the 
other with them violaceous. 
The Donaciae are members of a group called Clmjsomelidae, or 
popularly, “Golden Apple Beetles.” Several of the smaller repre¬ 
sentatives of this group are inhabitants of the ditches and their 
borders. Among the myriad insects swept up by the net in May, are 
the small, convex, slaty-blue Hi/drat/iawa anrta, whose wing-cases are 
bordered with yellow, and H. nian/incUa, which closely resembles a acta, 
but has a yellow margin to the thorax, which in aucta is unicolorous. 
In May I often find niart/inella inside the buttercups, and in winter 
under the looser bark of the adjacent willows. In the ditches 
themselves, on the aquatic plants, occur my favourites, Praxncuris 
junci and phellandrii, the former on the water speedwell, the latter 
without apparent preference for any special plant, although it is said 
to favour the umbellifer / ’hellanilriiiw . Both are oblong in shape, 
and narrow ; P.jimci is wholly dark blue, while 1 ‘. pUrllandrii is marked 
with alternate black and yellow stripes, and has yellow borders to the 
thorax. If we shake the branches of those larger willows at the side 
of the field, out will fall numbers of shining golden drops, the 
destructive I'/n/llodecta vitcllinac. Here and there we pick out a dark 
blue specimen, while perhaps, if we are lucky, we may find the exquisite 
little ( repidodera aurata, with its bright crimson thorax and golden 
green elytra, a species not at all common here. 
The beetles 1 have alluded to in this short paper constitute only a 
very small portion of those actually to be met with in the Lea Valley, 
but the limit of time to which 1 am tied prevents me from enlarging 
