Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
April,  1883.  j 
Colored  1^ lowers  of  the  Carrot. 
163 
short,  straight  claw.  The  skins  are  shed  quite  often  during  the  larval 
state,  and  are  discarded  by  a  slit  nearly  the  length  of  the  back,  termi- 
nating indifferently  at  either  end,  and  through  which  the  insect  emerges. 
The  shed  skins  present  a  beautiful  iridescent  appearance  under  the 
microscope  when  viewed  by  reflected  light. 
These  larvse  feed  on  the  cantharides  all  winter,  and,  if  in  quantity, 
commit  great  havoc,  leaving  only  the  hard  exterior  portions  untouched, 
such  as  the  upper  portion  of  the  thorax,  the  green  wing  cases,  and 
transparent  wings.  When  their  legitimate  food  gives  out  they  have  no 
compunction  about  first  eating  their  dead  parents,  and  then  each  other, 
but  on  this  diet  they  do  not  seem  to  thrive  so  well. 
The  beetle  emerges  in  May  or  June,  and  is  about  one-eighth  of  an 
inch  long,  oval,  and  black,  the  upper  parts  being  marbled  and  streaked 
Avith  whitish  and  rufous,  which  are  rubbed  ofP  after  death  if  the  insect 
is  subjected  to  any  rough  usage. 
Camphor  does  not  kill  these  larvae,  and  after  keeping  some  for  a  day 
in  a  small  box  about  a  quarter  full  of  camphor,  the  only  thing  worthy 
of  remark  in  their  actions  was  that  they  did  not  seem  quite  so  lively 
as  those  kept  without  it.  That  they  have  a  distaste  for  it,  however,  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  some  which  were  put  in  a  box  with  holes  in  it, 
left  the  box  during  the  night.  The  Pharmacopoeia  direction  to  keep 
camphor  with  the  cantharides  is,  therefore,  not  a  remedy,  merely  a 
preventive  measure,  and  not  a  very  good  one  either.  The  vapor  of 
chloroform  rapidly  kills  them,  so  that  by  putting  a  small  quantity  of 
chloroform  in  a  gallipot  on  the  top  of  the  infested  cantharides,  the 
heavy  vapor  will  sink  through  it  and  destroy  them. 
Note. — The  essay  was  accompanied  with  specimens  of  the  larvse, 
skins,  and  beetles,  well  mounted  for  examination  by  means  of  the 
microscope. — Editoe. 
Colored  Flowers  of  the  Carrot.— Mr.  Thomas  Meehan 
remarked  that  the  umbellet  of  colored  flowers  in  the  centre  of  the  umbel 
of  the  carrot  was  represented  as  usually  fertile  in  Europe  and  sterile  in 
the  United  States.  He  had  always  found  them  sterile  here  until  1882, 
when  he  discovered  that  those  in  the  centre  of  the  first  umbel  of  the 
season  were  fertile,  and  those  in  the  umbels  from  lateral  shoots  were 
sterile. — Proceed.  Acad.  Nat.  Sciences,  Phila.,  1882,  p.  221.  (See  also 
Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1882,  p.  585.) 
