Page images
PDF
EPUB

on costal margin, is a band of yellow-fulvous, at first narrow, bending around the patch, then following the stigma, widening gradually and ending on middle of inner margin; the area above the stigma to costa and base reddish-fulvous; stigma long, sinuous, and in shape of a narrow ridge, edged somewhat on either side by brown.

Secondaries have a yellow-fulvous band on the farther side of the disk, bent at a right angle; the area to base covered with long fulvous hairs on dark ground, rest of wing brown; fringes cinereous.

Under side of primaries reddish-fulvous at base and along costal margin, brown at base below the subcostal nervure; the extra discal band repeated, the upper part in white, the remainder lost in a yellow shade which suffuses the inner margin quite to the angle; apical area reddish-brown or brown dusted with fulvous scales; the hind margin edged by a whitish line.

Secondaries dark ferruginous dusted with dull fulvous; the submedian interspace more or less clear orange-fulvous; costal edge gray and the hind and inner margins edged by a whitish line; the band repeated in pure white, and in cell a white longitudinal band extends from base nearly to the extremity.

Body above covered with green hairs; beneath, thorax with yellow and brown, the abdomen yellow; legs fulvous; palpi yellow; antennae fuscous above annnlated with pale fulvous, fulvous below; club black above, fulvous below, the tip deep ferruginous.

Female same size, and similarly marked, but paler colored; the stigma replaced by a long brown patch.

From several examples taken by Mr. Morrison in Southern Colorado. The species belongs to the Comma sub-group.

Pamphila Snowi, Edw. I received from Mr. Morrison several examples of both sexes of this fine species, originally described from a single male. The female is same size as the male and similar in color and markings, with the exception of the stigma.

Pamphila Phylace.

Male.-Expands 1.2 inch.

Upper side dark brown, immaculate; fringes cinereous.

Under

side dark brown, the apical area of primaries and the whole of secondaries of a grayish tint; immaculate.

Body above concolored, beneath brown, with gray hairs on thorax, the abdomen gray; legs brown; collar broadly orange, and palpi orange; antennae black, the under side imperfectly annulated with gray-white; club black, on under side more or less whitish.

From a single example taken by Mr. Morrison in Southern Colorado, and the only one met with. The species is at once distinguished, by the orange collar and palpi, from any other at present known to our fauna. The species belongs to sub-group of Osyka.

Amblyscirtes Aenus.

Male. Expands 1.1 inch.

Upper side brown, with a yellowish tint; primaries have a series of small yellow spots, beginning on costa near apex and passing round the end of the stigma and thence back of same to inner margin; the three next costa nearly perpendicular to it and bright; the rest less decided in color and less distinct in outline; the stigma is represented by a slight thickening and blackening of the median nervure, fringes cinereous and brown, alternately.

Under side of primaries brown, towards apex darker and dusted with gray scales, at base yellowish.

Secondaries umber dusted with gray; across the disk is an indistinct band of small gray spots, or clusters of scales, and two or three others towards base. Another example has the three costal spots on both sides distinct, but the rest are nearly obsolete.

Body above brown; below, thorax gray, abdomen-gray brown; legs gray and brown; palpi white at base, with many black and brown hairs above; antennae black with white rings; club black, whitish beneath.

Female. Same size. Both sides lighter colored, the marking similar to male. The position of this species is between Eos and Textor. From two examples taken by Mr. Morrison in Southern Colorado. Amblyscirtes Nilus.

Male.-Expands 1.1 inch.

Upper side light brown, glossy; primaries have three small, equal, pure white spots in line from costa, near apex, and a still smaller one in upper median interspace; secondaries immaculate; fringes of primaries alternate brown and white, of secondaries white, cut with brown at the end of the nervules on middle of the wing only. Under

side of primaries a shade lighter, the spots repeated, and of same size as above; secondaries wholly dusted with gray scales; beyond the disk a row of five small white points nearly parallel to the hind margin, only the second from costa being out of line in the direction of the base; on costal margin two similar spots, one midway between apex and base, the other between the first and base; in the cell a small white spot or point.

Body above brown, below gray-white; legs gray and brown; palpi pure white, with brown and black hairs above; antennae annulated black and white; club black, whitish next tip, the tip dark brown.

From a single example sent me by Mr. Boll and taken by him in Texas, in 1877. The macular surface of the under side of secondaries readily distinguishes this species.

Pholisora Pirus.

Male.-Expands 1 inch.

Upper side glossy dark brown; primaries have three small yellow spots near apex, a point in each of the two median interspaces in a line oblique to the spots; also a point within and near end of cell below the subcostal; secondaries immaculate; fringes light brown.

Under side of both wings castaneous; the disk of primaries blackened; the spots repeated, a little enlarged, yellow.

Body fuscous; below, the thorax gray-brown, abdomen same, reddish at sides and extremity; legs reddish; palpi white at base, yellow above, with many black hairs; antennæ black, with fine rings of yellow, yellow below; club black, tip deep ferruginous.

From 2 Colorado.

received from Mr. Morrison, and taken in Southern

WM. H. EDWARDS.

The Flora of Martha's Vineyard and Vicinity. The account here given includes the group of islands forming the extreme southern part of Massachusetts, of which Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are the chief; and also that portion of the adjoining main land known as Cape Cod. This region possesses some botanical features that are in marked contrast with those of the district immediately north of it.

One who has never visited Martha's Vineyard would imagine from the name that its vegetation must be very rich and varied, one who has visited the island and roamed over its barren coasts would come to the conclusion that its name must have been bestowed on the lucus a non lucendo principle, because there are no vineyards there.

And yet there was a period, if we may credit the ancient historians, when the aspect of these islands was very different. Bartholomew Gosnold and his fellow voyagers, who discovered and landed upon them in the year 1602, speak rapturously of their fertility. At that time the islands were covered, to the water's edge, with a thick growth of timber trees, among which are mentioned the oak, ash, beech, walnut, cedar and cherry. Archer the principal historian of Gosnold's enterprise, enumerates as among the smaller growths, "rubbish" he calls them, "hawthorne, eglantine, * honeysuckle, gooseberry bushes, vines, whortleberries, raspberries, sassafras, groundnuts, alexander, survey, tansy &c., without count."

Brereton, another member of the ship's company, who also wrote an account of the voyage, is greatly attracted by the "strawberries, red and white, as sweet and much bigger than ours in England." They formed, he says, "such an incredible store of vines, as well in the woody part of the island as on the outward parts, that we could not go for treading upon them in comparison whereof the most fertile part of England is (of itself) but barren.”

These narratives show plainly enough how one half of the name of Martha's Vineyard originated, though no one has ever yet ascertained who the lady was in whose honor the old sailor conferred the other half.

The noble forests that greeted the eyes of the early navigators have fallen a victim to the cupidity of later settlers, and large tracts of sand and bare uplands now occupy the greater part of the land. The former woods are represented by a few, scanty pines and oaks on some of the low hills and sand bluffs, except at the western extremity of the Vineyard where a little more of the ancient fertility remains.

* The mention of Eglantine (Rosa rubiginosa, which has been called Eglantine by the English from time immemorial) as being in New England 275 years ago, naturaly suggests the inquiry how Dr. Gray, who marks this plant in his Manual as "Nat. from Eu." determines whether a particular species is native or introduced.

The oaks are a curiously stunted form of Quercus rubra, which the sterile soil and the high winds prevailing on the island prevent from attaining a height of more than fifteen or twenty feet.

One spot on Martha's Vineyard, famous as a Campmeeting ground and summer watering place, is called "Oak Bluffs," from a grove of these trees. The poor things do their best to imitate their lofty brethren of mid New England but the effort is a great failure.

Everything in the shape of trees and shrubs is stunted. On a visit to the Vineyard during the past season, the writer found, among other dwarfed plants, the most comical little specimens of Rhus copallina. This shrub in the interior of Massachusets, grows to the height of a man's head, but here it forms full flowering trees barely six inches high, as though it grew in a Japanese Conservatory, or in the Arctic region. No better proof of the poverty of the soil could be given than the fact that most of the uplands are covered with Cladonia rangiferina, and on acres of disused fields and pastures the foot craunches this brittle lichen as though it were a crust of snow.

The herbaceous flora of the district could not under such circumstances, be supposed to be very abundant, but what there is is quite peculiar Instead of being northern in character, as from the latitude we might expect, it is essentiaely southern. There is hardly a plant to be met with which is not also found at least as far south as the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, and much of the vegetation occurs all the way to Virginia, and even farther south.

On the salt and brackish marshes we get Cyperus Nuttallii, in fine, large specimens Scirpus Olneyi, Carex foenea, Discopleura capillacea, Salicorn fruticosa, var. ambigua, Hibiscus moscheutos and Iris Virginica. Four of these find their northern limit at this point. The Hibiscus is as large and showy as on the brackish marshes of the eastern shore in Maryland.

On the same marshes we found last summer that curious sedge Eleocharis rostellata, which, for want of a better English name, may be called the Walking Sedge. In crossing the moors, our feet were frequently entangled in what at first we thought must be strings fastened to the ground, but what proved to be the rooted sterile stems of this sedge. On a single plant were counted a colony of nearly thirty culms which had all taken root, and many of the offshoots had already thrown up new stems, The plant appears to propagate itself mainly in this manner, although it does not lack for fruit on the fertile culms.

« EelmineJätka »