SPECIES DISTRIBUTION ABOUT PLYMOUTH. 325 
The beautiful larve of the privet hawk moth (Sphinw Ligustri) 
are quite common in gardens in our town, where they feed mostly 
on the privet, lilac, or laurustinus, though in the country districts 
around I have found them generally on the ash. That they should 
eat indifferently the ash, privet, or lilac is not to be considered a 
matter for surprise, since they are all allied species belonging to. 
one order, Oleacee ; but that they should be often found also on 
the foreign laurustinus, a species of viburnum, one of the order 
Caprifoliaceee, may well be considered remarkable, especially as 
this is frequently the case when privet or lilac bushes are growing 
close by. Their feeding on this introduced, but now very common, 
shrub has probably proved to the benefit of the species, and led 
to its increase here. 
The extensive diffusion of the numerous varieties of cabbage, 
with the other varied progeny obtained by the art of the horticul- 
turist from Brassica oleracea, as also of tumips, mignonette, and 
two or three species of Tropaolum, has doubtless been greatly to 
the advantage of two of our common white butterflies (P. Brassice 
and P. Rape), whose favourite food-plants these now are. The 
little parasitical ichneumon fly too, that does the gardener so much 
service by destroying an immense number of the caterpillars of the 
first, has probably greatly increased through having had abundant 
store of food supplied for it when in its larval state by the bodies 
of the living caterpillars. | 
A great deal has been said lately on relations existing between 
colours in flowers and the visits of insects to them, the flowers 
being supposed to attract the insects by means of their bright or 
clear colours, so as to secure their own fertilization. Their odours, 
too, have very reasonably been regarded as another lure, such as are 
emitted in the evening or at night, appearing designed to secure the 
visits of moths, the larger number of which feed’ only at these times. 
We often hear a great deal about the all-pervading quiet and 
repose of Nature; but how much is there in such a view of the 
world around us that is in reality opposed to simple fact and plain 
scientific truth! Poets generally have done so much to picture it 
to us as one untroubled scene of calm repose and tranquillity that 
it seems almost to have been reserved for the most popular poet 
of our own day to sing of it in another strain, and so great is the 
contrast that he seems absolutely to startle us when he passionately 
exclaims—— 
Y 
