are Polyómmatus Argiolus, further Queries regarding. (Vol. IV. p. 477. 558., and Vol. V. p. 109.) – Sir, Two of your correspondents have kindly supplied ready answers to my question, in Vol. IV. p. 477., whether Polyómmatus Argiolus is to be considered a double-brooded insect. These answers are, as I expected they would be, in the affirmative. That of Mr. Newman (Vol. IV. p. 558.), relating to the above insect, as well as to Melita'a Euphrósyne, and Selène, appears to be the result of minute personal observation, and carries with it such an air of truth, that there can be no doubt of its accuracy. Mr. Jordan also states (Vol. V. p. 109.) that the 'species [P. Argiolus] is, without doubt, double-brooded;" that he has seen living individuals in April, and again in September this year" (1831). September, I may remark, is rather a late period of the year for these insects; and when Mr. Jordan describes them, as spreading their azure wings, and flitting from flower to flower," these latter remarks strike me as more applicable to the habits and manners of the common blue (P. I'carus), which is abundant in September, than to those of P. Argiolus, which generally disappears before that time, and is, moreover, a vapouring restless fly, seldom settling except upon bushes (holly, ivy, and other evergreens), and then, for the most part, remaining with its wings closed. May not, therefore, Mr. Jordan have mistaken specimens of the common blue, seen in September, for those of P. Argiolus? I should not have presumed to cast a doubt on the accuracy of this gentleman's statement (which, on the whole, corresponds pretty nearly with the facts observed by others and by myself), were it not that he candidly avows himself to be "not an entomologist;" and, to such a person, one blue butterfly may, very possibly, be mistaken for another. I know, by experience, that when persons who "not entomologists" have been shown specimens of some of the rarer blues, they have confidently affirmed that they have seen the same abundantly in this or that neighbourhood; and I have sometimes found it next to impossible to convince them to the contrary. Mr. Jordan will, I trust, excuse the freedom of these remarks, which have been called forth solely by his own honest confession, that he is "not an entomologist." I feel obliged to him, however, for his answer; and not the less so, on account of its coming from one who, if not an entomologist, must at all events be (what is, perhaps, better) an observer of Nature herself. The remarks of such a person cannot but be valuable, coming, as they do, fresh, as it were, from the fields and wood; smelling (if I may so speak) of the open air, and consequently less likely to have been biassed on either side by mere book-learning, or the influence of high authorities. I hope Mr. Jordan will attend to the subject of the present notice next season, and communicate his remarks through the medium of your pages. Let me not be here understood to express any doubts as to the insect in question being doublebrooded; it appears undoubtedly to be so, at least in some districts (I saw it on the wing, myself, on the 4th of August last, between Dartford and Gravesend). But, again, I would ask, whether any one can assign a plausible reason why the species proves only single-brooded in some parts of England, as it unquestionably appears to be here (at Allesley), where, as I have before said, it occurs in more than usual abundance in the early spring? Is it only in the more southern counties that it appears twice in the season? Kent, Hampshire, Somersetshire, and Devonshire, are, 1 think, the principal counties in which I have yet either seen or heard of the æstival [summer] specimens. I regret that, in figuring the species (Vol. IV. p. 477.), a representation was not also given of the under side of the insect, which would have precluded all possibility of confounding it with the common blue (P. I'carus). Yours, &c.-W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, January 6. 1832. [See p.490. of the present Number. — J. D.] THE MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. JULY, 1832. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Chit-chat. No. I. By JOHN F. M. DOVASTON, Esq. A.M., of Westfelton, near Shrewsbury. LOUDON asks of me a Leader for July. Von Os. On what subject? Dov. Any. Natural history in general. The Magazine extends very widely; and he wishes something familiar, something popular. Von Os. Cognizable to all capacities? Dov. Exactly so. He has plenty of contributors of articles of deep science, extensive information, and effusions of beauty. Von Os. Such as Bowman, Bree, Waterton, and others: like as in casting the characters at an amateur play; the manager always finds plenty of candidates for the topping parts, but none to discharge ye the underlings. Dov. Myriads of little interesting incidents occur in conversation, too desultory for a regular article in the work, and too small even for a note at the end: so many a pretty gem is lost by its minuteness, and many a bright ray by its eva Von Os. 'Tis so on all subjects: the essence of truth and beauty is exhaled in conversation, while what is elaborately written, seems merely the dregs. Try an interlocutory article, where the spirit of the moment "One little ray flings through the darkling mind, Blaze fitfully, in many a level beam." Dov. And the best of these is spoiled by writing. Who can weave sunbeams?- and what are gathered dew-drops? Von Os. Natural history is felicitously suitable to this style, from its exhaustless variety, and adaptability to all minds; admitting, even more forcibly, what Cicero so eloquently says of Polite Literature, in his oration for the poet Archias, — "as calling upon us at all times, ages, and places; employing our youth, amusing our age; embellishing prosperity, consoling adversity; delightful at home, and of easy carriage abroad; soothing our leisure, shortening our fatigue, and enlivening our retirement." Dov. True. And from the profuse efflux of works now issued to illustrate it, of all sorts, sizes, and prices, it is like to find its way more readily into the higher and lower ranks of society, where it is about alike wanted. Von Os. The middle, in all ages and countries, have always been the best informed, and most benevolent; the highest and lowest, the most ignorant and callous. Dov. Ray tells a humorous story, that, after the patiently exploring commissioners, at the end of their long examinations, deliberately confessed their utter ignorance to account for the Goodwin Sands, an old man gravely asserted Tenterden steeple to be the cause. Von Os. Tenterden steeple! Dov. Ay; Tenterden steeple: for that those sands first. appeared the year it was erected. Von Os. And the slightest interview with the mass of mankind, any hour, will prove the race of Tenterden philosophers to be far from extinct. : Dov. Particularly with regard to facts relative to natural history and this is the more lamentable, and perhaps the more surprising, when we consider its unlimited adaptability to all capacities, ages, sexes, and ranks; and, moreover, the absolute necessity of many parts of it to their intellectual existence. Von Os. There is in our village a slater, very fond of keeping bees. These useful insects, he says, at breeding-time, sweat prodigiously; and each lays four eggs at the bottom of each cell soon after which, he has observed the combs to become full of maggots, which must be carefully destroyed by smoke! When any one of his numerous family is buried, as the corpse passes out of the house, he carefully loosens every hive, and lifts it up: otherwise, he says, the bees would all die! Dov. The superstitions about bees are numberless. Von Os. And yet this poor fellow believes himself inspired with "grace abounding;" and readily undertakes to "spound," as he calls it, any verse read to him, however remotely insulated from the context. Dov. But what would you think of a gentleman I have the pleasure of visiting in the higher ranks, and whose conversation is really a happiness to me, who talks of little young bees?—and really believes that they grow! He smiled at me compassionately when I told him that insects never grew when in the perfect state; but, like Minerva from the brain of Jove, issue full-armed with sharpest weapons, and corslets of burnished green, purple, and gold, in panoply complete : yet is this gentleman a man of genius, wit, and very extensive knowledge. Von Os. Not in bees. Dov. He was not aware of the numerous species of British bees; and that several, of a small intrepid sort, will enter the hives, and prey on the treasures of their more industrious congeners. Von Os. Reasoning from analogy does not do in natural history. Dov. No; for who, without observation, or the information of others, ever by analogical reasoning could reconcile the enormous difference of size, and colour, in the sexes of some of the humble bees? or ever discover that in some species there are even females of two sizes? Von Os. But these never grow. Dov. Certainly not. Bees, however, hatched in very old cells, will be somewhat smaller : as each maggot leaves a skin behind, which, though thinner than the finest silk, layer after layer, contracts the cells, and somewhat compresses the future bee. Von Os. No ignorance is so contemptible as that of what is hourly before our eyes. I do not so much wonder at the fellow who enquired if America was a very large town, as at him who, finding the froth of the Cicàda spumària L. on almost every blade in his garden, wondered where were all the cuckoos that produced it. Dov. They call it cuckoo-spit, from its plentiful appearance about the arrival of that bird. Von Os. That is reasoning from analogy. Dov. And yet I see not why the bird should be given to spitting; unless, indeed, he came from America. Von Os. The vulgar, too, not only delight in wonders inexplicable, but have a rabid propensity to pry into futurity. Dov. I believe that propensity is far from being confined to the vulgar. Von Os. True; but not in so ridiculous a way: as they prophesy the future price of wheat from the number of lenticular knobs (containing the sporules) in the bottom of a cup of the fungus Nidulària. Dov. The weather may be foretold with considerable certainty, for a short time, from many hygrometric plants, and the atmospheric influence on animals. Von Os. And from Cloudology, by the changing of primary clouds into compound; and these resolving themselves into nimbi, for rain; or gathering into cumuli, for fair weather. This is like to become a very useful and pleasing science. Dov. It is wonders of this kind, and forewarnings of this nature, that natural history offers to the contemplative mind: in the place of superstitious follies, and unavailing predictions, such as the foretelling of luck from the number or chattering of magpies; and the wonder how red clover changes itself into grass, as many a farmer at this moment believes. Von Os. Linnæus himself was a bit of a prophet; as, indeed, thus well he might: for experience and observation amount almost to the power of vaticination. In his Academic Amenities he says, "Deus O. M. et Natura nihil frustra creaverit [Qu. creaverint?]. Posteros tamen tot inventuros fore utilitates ex muscis arguor, quot ex reliquis vegetabilibus." Dov. English it, Von Osdat; thou'rt a scholar. Von Os." God and Nature have made nothing in vain. Posterity may discover as much in mosses, as of utility in other herbs." Dov. And, truly, so they may: one lichen is already used as a blessed medicine in asthma; and another to thicken milk, as a nutritive posset. And who, enjoying the rich productions of our present state of horticulture, can recur without wonder to the tables of our ancestors? They knew absolutely nothing of vegetables in a culinary sense; and as for their application in medicine, they had no power unless gathered under planetary influence, "sliver'd in the moon's eclipse." |