GENERAL NOTES. 
21 
Mr. Dunn, who recently made an extended botanical expedition to Fukien, the province 
which abuts on Kwangtung to the north, informs me that the flora is an almost equal intermingling 1 
of tropical and temperate forms. 
The butterflies familiar to everyone here, which make a show all the year round, are 
Danais , Euplcea , Precis , Neptis , Catopsilia and Terias , the prevalence of the four latter genera 
indicating the open character of the country; whilst, excluding January, February and December, 
the Papilionince are exceedingly numerous and probably more noticed than other genera on account 
of their large size and usually brilliant colouring. The months when butterflies are, on the whole, 
best represented here are March and April, October and November; June, July and August being 
probably the least productive months, having together with May the greatest rainfall; as this is also 
the hottest period of the year it would seem that great heat and excessive rainfall do not alone 
account for the hosts of butterflies in tropical regions, but rather a moderately high temperature and 
uniformity of moisture throughout the year, when brood succeeds brood without any prolongation 
of the larval stage due to lack of moisture, or perhaps in a comparatively treeless country to too 
great heat—or rather want of sheltering trees and shade to temper the heat. The first of the wet 
season forms to appear have of course matured from eggs laid by dry season forms, the reverse 
obtaining in the dry season. The actual causes pf seasonal change are not yet well understood and 
authorities differ as to the amount of effect produced on the one hand by heat and cold, on the other 
by a dry and a wet atmosphere. During the winter here the air is exceptionally dry as a rule, and 
the resulting harsh and shrivelled foliage of much of the vegetation is no doubt the chief cause of 
the slow feeding and extension of the larval period in the dry season; the larvae become generally 
larger than the wet season forms, the resulting butterflies naturally tending to be larger than their 
wet forms ; but this phenomenon is not invariable. 
October is the time of change to d.s.f., when the N.E. monsoon sets in; April the change 
to w.s.fi, when the S.W. monsoon begins. Overlapping, however, takes place to a certain amount 
in most butterflies, to a great extent in the Satyrince. 
The eggs of butterflies are beautiful objects under a glass, of elegant and varied shape, 
fluted, beaded and ornamanted in endless patterns, though the eggs of allied species exhibit a 
similarity of outline. Though so delicate and fragile-looking the shell, which rapidly hardens after 
deposition, is remarkably tough and elastic; globular eggs if dropped on a hard surface 
will rebound like a tennis-ball. If possible, a few typical eggs. will be subsequently figured, 
drawn on a large scale. 
