Chapter XX: LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER (continued) AND TO DR. BETHUNE

Foreign correspondents—Book by Dr. Nalepa—Efforts to endow Agricultural
lectures at Oxford or Cambridge—Literary productions—Sympathetic
communications.

The letters addressed to Dr. Fletcher after his visit to Miss Ormerod and her sister Georgiana at St. Albans have here been grouped, as a matter of convenience, with letters to the Rev. Dr. C. J. S. Bethune, another Canadian Entomologist, who held a high place in Miss Ormerod’s esteem, both as a man of science and as a sympathetic friend in whom to confide in times of sorrow.

_To Dr. J. Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa, Canada._

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS,
_September 29-30, 1893_.

DEAR DR. FLETCHER,—We were very glad to hear you had safely
returned home. I wish we could have had a longer chat, but I
will be thankful for the very great pleasure of chatting with
you at all.

Just after you had left (or rather, I think, were leaving)
England the Rothamsted Jubilee took place, which brought very
many distinguished agriculturists to this part of the country,
and you may imagine how much it was wished that you could have
been present. I did not attend, but a few friends from long
distances off looked in here on their way.

_November 26 and December 1, 1893._

I have long been owing you a letter, and thanks, too, for your
“Entomological Report,” which I read at once when it reached me.
You know the pleasure and the confidence I feel in all I learn
from your writings. They and your kind co-operation have been an
immense help to my work and me for many a year, which I have
never ceased to appreciate most gratefully. I am working now on
my next Annual Report. There has been a good deal of nice fresh
matter sent in, and (so far as I could) I have tried not to go
over old ground. I have a grand paper on Locusts (fig. 55), my
specimens being identified at Madrid by Senor Don Igo Bolivar.
Wasps were a terrible plague—and I have got some charming
observations, so entertaining! but I have taken great care to
have them on good authority—and M. Schoyen kindly sent me some
notes by the Swedish State Entomologist of an enormous
appearance at Tromsoe a few years ago. As this is so high up in
the Arctic circle I thought the record would be of interest
scientifically, and it is so spirited I have had many a good
laugh over it (p. 239).

But what I hope you may be really pleased with is, that through
the kind introduction of Dr. Friedrich Thomas, of Ohrdruf, whom
you will know, I think, as one of our leading European
Phytopathologists, I was put in communication with Dr. A. Nalepa
(of Vienna), who for some years back has quite especially
devoted himself to the study of _Phytoptidæ_ (Blister galls). So
that now we have in his successive publications first-rate
specific descriptions, with measurements and everything
requisite for certain identification of all the species which he
has studied so far. Also in very many cases he gives good
magnified figures, and he added to his many kindnesses to myself
by sending me a plate with the details of the creatures marked
with the technical names. In his treatises already published he
has given excellent accounts of very many species as well as a
good serviceable classification, and I rather think that the
work which has been coming out in the Reports of the Imperial
Scientific Society of Vienna is to be completed this spring.

This letter has been lying by me for a few days for an addition
I wanted to make, and now I have to thank you very heartily for
the great kindness which you have shown to poor Mr. T—— [a West
of England farmer who had been unfortunate]. If he can manage to
adapt himself to circumstances your timely and great assistance
will have been the means of setting him up again. I doubted
rather whether it was right of me to trouble you about him,
still I thought I would venture, and indeed your help will have
been the means of saving him from going quite down. I had no
idea (no more apparently than Mr. T——) that his Canadian
prospects on his own and relations’ standing were so hopeless.
Do you think a little money would help? Say a couple of £5 notes
or so, for possibly thick clothing is a matter needing supply.
If you think it would be well, we would very gladly (if you
would kindly give me his address) send out a little. One can get
over scruples by calling it “a loan,” and to be returned, if
ever, at convenience, or not at all if more so, but I do not
like to send without your leave.

_December 5, 1893._

A hasty line to catch post, about Dr. Nalepa’s books. I have
just heard from Messrs. Wesley that they have ordered (as I
asked them) a duplicate set of the four of Dr. N.’s pamphlets
which I have, and sent you the names of yesterday. When these
arrive I shall send them on to you, hoping you will kindly
accept them, if for no other reason, to be a trifling reminder
to you of how much I appreciate your always kind help to myself.
The money value, as I mentioned to you, is small, but I am very
desirous that you should have them as soon as possible, and
ordering from here will save some delay.

Mr. Sinclair [the editor] wrote me thanks for your paper, and
that he is having a figure of your fly copied for the “Live
Stock Journal.” This will attract attention surely.

_December 21, 1893._

I wonder if you ever came across any observation of
moths—_i.e._, their larvæ—injuring silk in the raw material, as
they habitually do woollen goods. I did not know that they did,
but this morning I had an inquiry about it from Tiverton, and
amongst the moths sent as offenders was a lovely white cocoon,
which appeared as if it might have been made of the same
material as the beautifully fine silk manufactured web or net
sent with it, and outside this cocoon, now empty, were a number
of little pellets of pale larval excrement, as if they were the
results of feeding on very pale material. I hope to hear more of
this. Would it not be a nice new observation?

_March 13, 1894._

Very many thanks for the copy of your charming Report kindly
sent to myself, and the six so liberally also presented, which I
am placing carefully where they will be appreciated and useful.
One I sent to our Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society,
to the pleasure of the President. They are doing a good deal of
nice work, and were going to have a special exhibition of
_Silphidæ_ (Beet carrion beetles), with observations (fig. 26).
I like your Report very much; there is an immense amount of
good, sound, straightforward information, both scientific and
practical, in it, and it is quite an example of honest dealing
with your body of observers. I have been very much interested in
your Silpha notes, and I wonder whether we could get our farmers
to try poisoning the cutworms, “surface caterpillars” as we call
them here. I wonder whether I should not do well to follow your
example and have short notes of anything interesting, even
without giving a long story. These embody a great deal of useful
information, but with us who are so behindhand in entomological
information, I have been afraid that without a full account and
a figure the readers would be all abroad. I was very much
gratified to see the honourable place you give my name among
your colleagues. Indeed this pleases me very much.

I was very much interested with what you told me of overplus of
wasps having accompanied deficiency of rainfall in one portion
of your part of the world. Our Press has been very kind to me,
and I was particularly pleased with one remark, that (although
retired from the Royal Agricultural Society) I had not ceased to
be the “Consulting Entomologist of the Agriculturists of Great
Britain.”

Just now I am running a leaflet on _Bryobia prætiosa_
(Gooseberry red spider), through the press, and this morning I
had an order for 3,000 copies! Just think of that, and without
the firm even seeing it!

_April 9, 1894._

I am trying to bring kerosene, or mineral oil emulsion more
forward as an insecticide. I have given a number of the best
recipes in one of our leading agricultural journals—“The
Farmer’s Gazette,” Dublin—with the information that for those
who cannot manage permanent combination of the constituents, the
so-called “antipest” makes a good substitute.

It appears that “formalin,” as the trade name is called, is
being brought out as a disinfectant. Mr. A. Zimmermann has been
trying the effects as an insecticide on greenhouse plants, and
he considered it so bad for the insects, and beneficial rather
than hurtful to the plants, that he wanted my co-operation in
getting it tried. Dr. Bernard Dyer told me he thought it would
be well worth trial.

The point that occurred to me was could we use it against the
Flour moth, _E. kuhniella_? At present we have got some flour
well impregnated with emanation from some of the tablets, and
Mr. Zimmermann was going to have a loaf baked of some of this
flour, and consumed in his own large household, without letting
them know there is anything peculiar about it! I am to know
results; and I have said I should like a piece of the
experimental loaf. I hope we shall not all be made very
miserable indeed. If the flour rises properly, and the bread is
fit to be eaten, then I am meditating getting an experiment made
as to the destructive powers of the fumes by some of our folks
here connected with milling, and also suggesting to Mons. J.
Danysz, Director of the Laboratory of Parasitology, Bourse de
Commerce, Paris, whether he might care to experiment in some of
the French mills with which he had been in communication
regarding destruction of _E. kuhniella_. The chemical is sold in
tablets like large thick lozenges, and also as a fluid, and, I
believe, in powder.

Enclosed is a little packet of seed of the pink hawkweed, which
you thought pretty while here last summer, and a few seeds also
of the white _Lathyrus_ (vetchling). I hope they may remind you
how welcome your visits here are.

From life; Red spider (outline figure after Koch)—both magnified.
Infested leaf, natural size.

FIG. 52.—GOOSEBERRY AND IVY RED SPIDER, _BRYOBIA PRÆTIOSA_, C. L.
KOCH.
]

_June 20, 1894._

I was so sorry to learn from Professor Riley’s circular that he
really had resigned, and also from some observations in it to
surmise that all had not been quite comfortable. Who will be his
successor? Will it be Mr. L. O. Howard, I wonder? I expect that
Professor Riley (unless he is really very ill) will work at his
Entomology from morning till night or more.

The oak trees have been very severely injured by caterpillars in
various places. Down near Lymington, Hants, one of my
correspondents tells me the leafage is stripped so that the
trees look as if it were the middle of the winter. Aphides also
are very great pests this year, and we had a bad grass attack of
them near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were reported to be spreading
rapidly from one large field (that is, large for us) of 15 to 20
acres, so I thought the best advice I could give was to mow the
field—in the most literal sense, cut off the source of evil.

Is it not rather an interesting point to think of—that whether
the weather be hot and dry, or cold and wet, there are some
kinds of insect attack which appear to do equally well? The
crops bear up better in special circumstances, but their
unpleasant enemies seem to me just as comfortable.

I have got a very curious investigation on hand of the mischief
of some beetles on the grassland of our South American Land Co.
in the Argentine Territories. I will enclose or send you a
little note I put in one of our agricultural papers. Is it not
curious that the two Scarabæid beetles sent over with the
Dynastids should so rarely come to hand here that there is only
one specimen of each in our British Museum! I hope to work up
the observations, or rather, to get a good deal of trustworthy
observation to work upon, and to get some more specimens.

_July 16, 1894._

I am now writing first of all to ask you kindly to accept a copy
of the translation by Professor Ainsworth-Davis of Dr. Ritzema
Bos’s “Agricultural Zoology.” It seems to me a very useful book,
but I think it is a mistake of Messrs. Chapman & Hall to have so
arranged it that the price is 6s. This is almost a prohibitory
price to many who could find 2s. 6d. or 3s. Also, if I had seen
proof of title I think I would have asked for my name to appear
in a much more secondary fashion. I should mention this copy is
one of a few sent me for friends. I did not buy it or I would
not have enlarged on the price! I have written, by request of
Professor Davis, a short Introduction, and I was very glad to do
it to show that I had no feeling of opposition, for much of it
is on parallel lines with my Manual, and there might have been
misunderstandings which I should have been very sorry for—for
Dr. Ritzema Bos is always kind in helping me.

You will believe how intensely I was interested in all I could
hear about Professor Riley’s retirement. I was sorry for his
indifferent health, but perhaps it was more the desire to be a
free agent that led to his resignation. I think I could feel
very much with him, but his was a magnificent post to resign.

_October 28, 1895._

I was shocked and grieved to receive the news of our friend
Professor Riley’s fatal accident.[74] Dr. Bethune kindly sent me
a paper with the full account, and as I did not know what any
one might do in properly announcing it here, I wrote a short
letter to the “Times” which they inserted at once. This was just
what one might call a friendly notice; an account of the
accident and a few observations, the dry obituary notice (I mean
the regular formal notice) had been inserted the previous day. I
was very pleased to see yours in the “Canadian Entomologist.” It
was very sad, and I feel his loss much, for he was always, when
we corresponded, kind and helpful.

Here, things are going on (or standing still) much as usual, but
it has been a grand year for fresh observations. I have secured
a long carefully watched observation of _Harpalus ruficornis_
(Ground beetle) feeding on strawberry fruit. I watched and
recorded until I got so weary of acting as their fruiterer that
I thought seventeen days’ observation was enough.

Amongst pine attackers I have had a lovely specimen of the
_Astynomus ædilis_ (Timberman beetle), sent me from the north of
Scotland, the longest horned of the European “longhorns.” It is
wonderfully pretty to see the tiny beetle, not three-quarters of
an inch long, comfortably bearing its delicate antennæ, nearly
half a foot in expanse. Also I have got a good observation of
the Pine Shoot moth’s bad doings; the _Retinia buoliana_, the
“Post-horn” attack as they call it in Germany, from the twisted
shoots; and some other fresh work—but the great point of this
year’s observation is Horse and Cattle Diptera, Warble flies,
Gad flies, and Forest flies. Just now Forest flies are being
sent me from India. The Indian species is very pretty. I have
been working up the structure of the Hippoboscal foot, which is
indeed wonderful (plates XXIII., XXIV.). I do not understand the
details, so I have had two great drawings made, and
lithographed, for my next Annual Report, with the tiny foot
magnified to a size of 6 inches by 5, showing every detail that
appears to me observable, and I wonder what the parts will be
considered to do. I think I have made out a good deal, but there
is some apparatus that none of the few people I have consulted
make out.

Magnified, and lines showing natural length; strawberry fruit gnawed
by _Harpalus ruficornis_.

FIG. 53.—GROUND BEETLES—“BAT BEETLE,” _HARPALUS RUFICORNIS_, FAB.
(left), _PTEROSTICHUS VULGARIS_, LINN. (right).
]

Slightly larger than life; line showing natural length.

FIG. 54.—TIMBERMAN BEETLE, _ASTYNOMUS ÆDILIS_.
]

_May 15, 1897._

You will have seen the state of enthusiasm this whole country is
in about the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee. I trust that
the exertion and excitement will not be quite too much for her,
but it will be a great trial.

Another matter I feel more at home in—do you happen to have seen
in some of our English papers that some of us are trying to get
an Agricultural Lectureship established in the University of
Oxford? It came about this way. It appears that the funds for
support of the Sibthorpian Professorship of Rural Economy had
fallen so low, that it was feared it would have to be given up.
But the Clothworkers’ Company came forward with the offer of
£200 a year for five years on condition of Agriculture being
made one of the subjects to be taken for degrees. I offered £100
on the same terms, and then it was offered by one or two people
jointly, on the same terms, to clear off a debt which seemed
growing like a snowball. The matter is now under consideration
by the University authorities. They would gladly accept the
money, I believe, for an Agricultural Lectureship on which
attendance was voluntary, but the difficulty is accepting the
matter as essential for a degree.

Instruction in agriculture (that is, chemistry, forestry,
entomology, &c.) would do a great deal of good at such a centre
of our “coming on” great landholders as Oxford, but the students
will not attend the lectures unless the matter is compulsory.
Prof. Warington is the Sibthorpian lecturer—a friend and
neighbour (at least, he and his wife live very near by
railway)—so we can talk over progress. He has his hands, I
think, very full. In case after due consideration Oxford does
not think it desirable to establish the Chair, I fancy it is
very likely our offer may be then transferred to Cambridge; but
this is at present uncertain.

[These efforts in the higher interests of science as applied to
agriculture having failed, Miss Ormerod, in her _Last Will and
Testament_, bequeathed, out of her ample means, a sum of £5,000
to the University Court of the University of Edinburgh, “upon
trust for the benefit of that University.”]

_December 6, 1897._

I thank you very much for your two Entomological Reports lately
received. I want to read your observations on “Hair-worms”
carefully as soon as I can get time, for these creatures come, I
think, as regularly as the summer.

You will perhaps have seen the turmoil that the Sparrow-lovers
raised, and the floods of abuse they bestowed upon me. But it
advertised the leaflet beautifully, and I could hardly print at
first quickly enough to keep up to the demand. Our Royal
Horticultural Society has asked leave to reprint the Sparrow
leaflet in their Journal, which gratifies me much.

_January 21, 1898._

I think you will be pleased to know that I am in most pleasant
co-operation with the Duke of Bedford’s staff at the Woburn
Experimental Fruit-ground as to endeavouring to find some way to
lessen presence of _Phytoptus_ (mite galls), on black-currants.
We are going to try grafting on species which are not affected,
for one thing; after I have been trying for I do not know how
long to get growers to consider having their bushes in line,
with other crops between, I hear to-day from Woburn that it
appears as if those which had been grown that way were much the
freest from attack.

_February 16, 1898._

We are having an extraordinarily mild winter, and vegetation is
said in some places to be one or two months over-forward. Of
course insects are plying their trades heartily underground, but
(so far) I do not see any difference in amount of above-ground
appearances. If this is so generally, would it be too
far-fetched an idea to think it was a still further confirmation
of hibernation being constitutional, not an effect of weather?
The underground workers that are sent me are larval “eaters”
when not frozen torpid; also _Tylenchus devastatrix_ (eel-worm)
is, I believe, making wild work with clover, which is popularly
attributed to _Sitones_ (Pea-weevil) larvæ. I found the little
eel-worm (fig. 47) in quantities in abortive shoots of
“stem-sick” clover sent me, and I am giving warning about it.

_January 7, 1900._

I am very much gratified that you approve of the Index to my
Annual Reports. You will believe that it was a weary work to
make up our minds what arrangement would be desirable. The time
and sight that I worse than wasted on it was incredible, for, I
believe, I really complicated matters very much, and doctor, and
business manager (Mr. T. P. Newman) spoke so seriously that I
left off meddling, and I think Mr. Newstead did the work well.

I now very gladly forward a copy by book post, and I should be
only too pleased to send any copies that may be desired. My hope
is that besides being just a paged reference list, it may stand
for a sort of up-to-date “catalogue raisonné” of British
Economic Insect attacks.

_June 12, 1900._

I have owed you an answer to your kind letter so long that on
receipt this evening of your very valuable pamphlet, which I am
delighted to possess, I sit down at once to write.

I promise myself a great deal of information from your “Recent
Additions,” which is obviously of quite exceptional value. What
you say of the number of injurious insects being greater, as
well as the number of species, is very interesting. I am hoping
to utilise the reports of forest insects which have been sent me
up to date, in co-operation with Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall, the
consulting Entomologist of the Highland and Agricultural Society
of Scotland. I have much information scattered in my Annual
Reports, but I have not strength to work it and attend at the
same time (as I wish to do) to regular application, so we are
thinking that, as a “Text-book of Forestry” is much needed for
University use, we might work together; that is, Dr. MacDougall
to take the heavy scientific part, as his engagements allow, and
I to add what I can to the entomological notes which he has been
collecting for years, and also give the figures. I should like
this collaboration very much. Mr. Robert Wallace, the Professor
of Agriculture in the Edinburgh University (an old friend of
mine), is a very kind ally, and now I do not feel so very lonely
in my work. By parcel post (posted with this letter) I am
sending a photo of myself, taken in Doctor’s robes, for your
kind acceptance; I hope you will approve of the appearance of
your old friend in her new dress! With very kind remembrances
and good wishes, pray believe me, ever sincerely yours,

ELEANOR A. ORMEROD, LL.D.

_To the Rev. Dr. C. J. S. Bethune, Editor of “The Canadian
Entomologist.”_

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS, ENGLAND,
_April 1, 1895_.

MY DEAR MR. BETHUNE,—My sister and myself were indeed grieved
and shocked to see from the papers you kindly sent (received
yesterday morning) what a disaster had happened.[75] What a
mercy that all the boys were saved! The order and promptness
speak volumes for the spirit of obedience and discipline—and we
have been reading the whole history with the greatest sympathy
and admiration. Poor boys—I feel so sorry for them—running out
into the cold, to watch their pet collections and treasures
burning!

I gather that for building purposes you are fairly insured, but
will you let my sister and myself try to replace what we can of
our own books and drawings? We are writing up to Messrs.
Johnston to ask how best to forward my sister’s and my five sets
of Insect diagrams, which were published by our Royal
Agricultural Society. When we learn, she is going to have them
forwarded, and hopes you will kindly accept them as a little
token of her great sympathy. By this post I am sending, in two
book post parcels, my Manual (2nd edit.), “Cobham Journals,”[76]
and Annual Reports, vols. 13, 14, 15, 16, 18. These I have here,
and I am going to write to my printers to forward some more to
try and make up the set. Kindly accept these, and please excuse
the “Cobham Journals” not being absolutely new. But it has long
been out of print and I secured a presentation copy which was
offered for sale and had it bound, and put a strip of paper to
hide what might be on the title-page.

Mr. Fletcher is my chief Canadian correspondent, and it is a
great delight when I get a letter from him.

You will not have time at present to think of entomological
matters, but we were desirous to assure you as soon as possible
of our great sympathy in your trouble. With my very kind regards
to yourself and Mrs. Bethune, in which my sister begs to join
me.

_June 7, 1897._

I was very much pleased to see your handwriting again a short
time ago—and a little while before exceedingly gratified with
the long kind review. You, living among so many friends and
colleagues in work, can hardly appreciate how very greatly
indeed I value such kind encouragement.

Your beautiful letter was a great support and comfort to me in
my loss last year,[77] and now my health is fairly established
again. I had great trouble for many weeks, some months rather,
from some very troublesome disturbance of sight, but I did as
well as I could, and when circumstances allowed, I got one of
our best London oculists to come and see what was amiss. To my
great joy he told me that each of my eyes individually was in
excellent order, but there was some such difference in their
action that some special glasses were needed, and I find great
comfort from them. He said he wondered how I had been able to
work.

Just now Alfalfa (lucerne), infested with locusts is coming in
from Buenos Aires, and one of my correspondents found his horses
so ill after feeding on the infested lucerne, that I sent a copy
of his notes to our “Live Stock Journal.”

One of the three animals was reported to appear to suffer from
colic; another recovered when bran was substituted for the
locust-infested hay. The third I should conjecture was very ill
when I heard. But as I know nothing of veterinary matters, I
thought it was but right to send the notes on, with a kind of
apology. The locusts are of the South American migratory
kind—_Schistocerca paranensis_. Pretty creatures—even all
flattened out. My correspondent sent me about 120 of them.

Locust with wings spread: tip of male abdomen to the right, and of
female abdomen to the left. (After Conil, but reduced ⅙.)

FIG. 55.—SOUTH AMERICAN MIGRATORY LOCUST, _SCHISTOCERCA PARENENSIS_
(_MALE_).

From Lawrence Bruner’s Locust Investigation Commission Report, Buenos
Aires.
]

_July 20, 1898._

I am working now on what I hope to bring out in the autumn as a
good thick volume, called, “Handbook of Insects Injurious to
Orchard and Bush Fruits, with means of Prevention and Remedy,”
very fully illustrated. I am trying to include all the attacks
of any real importance of which observations have been sent to
me in the past twenty-one years, and though I give these from
British observations to a great extent, I am trying to bring
them all up to date. I hope you approve of the idea. Our fruit
industry is increasing so much, that more information is needed
for growers; but I do not feel sure I should have had courage to
begin it, if some one had not written to me that he purposed
bringing out a book on insect pests, and would like the use of
my figures to illustrate it! It occurred to me that when he was
about it he might like my letterpress also! So I have set to
work and I have got to about p. 224.

There are more of the rarer attacks about than usual this
year—_Atomaria linearis_ at mangolds, for instance. This morning
I heard from Messrs. Laxton, of Bedford, that they have gained a
complete victory over that destructive pest, the Strawberry
ground beetle, or beetles, I should say (in this instance
cockchafers, fig. 58). They bought a multitude of pudding basins
and sunk them in the strawberry beds, baited with sugar and
water, and tempting solids, and the beetles were caught in
hosts, sometimes by the half basin full. I think this is real
good news for strawberry growers.

I wish I knew better how to manage my work. I do not think I
should have any difficulty in keeping the real work in hand, but
there is so much correspondence on subjects which, indeed, one
can hardly call even allied, and yet I suppose one should return
a reply, and that adds uselessly to the work. How well you must
know this sort of thing!

I was grieved at the loss of our kind Dr. Lintner,[78] and I saw
my good friend Mr. T. P. Newman about some not wholly inadequate
notice being inserted in the “Entomologist.” I could from my
heart record his exceeding kindness to his weaker brethren.

Magnified; natural length, one twenty-fourth of an inch.
(After Taschenberg.)

FIG. 56.—PIGMY MANGOLD BEETLE, _ATOMARIA LINEARIS_, STEPHENS.
]

_July 28, 1899._

Your very kind letter to me of a few weeks back was a sincere
grief to me in its information of your abiding sorrow under the
heavy affliction with which it has pleased our Father to visit
you.[79] I scarcely know how to write to you, for it would be
presumptuous in me to endeavour to enter to you on the only
sources of consolation, which, in my own great loss, you placed
so comfortably before me; but, believe me, I earnestly
sympathise in your affliction, and earnestly hope that any
arrangement you make may be to your comfort. I am much pleased
to see in the paper of which you have kindly sent me a copy,
that great care is being taken, that, so far as may be, you
shall have a worthy successor in the office you have so
honourably held for so many years [Head Master of Trinity
College School, Port Hope].

I do not often hear from Canada, for Dr. Fletcher is so occupied
and has to move about so much, that he has not time to give me
the bits of entomological novelties he used to form most
interesting letters with. I am trying this season to get my
applicants to fill up their observations to some degree. Rather
an undertaking this, you will believe! But I am getting a few
new (or rather little brought forward) infestations.

The _Cidaria dotata_, sometimes called the “Spinach moth’ is, I
think, of interest at present.

I am sure that when you move to a new home you will kindly let
me have your address, for I should be very sorry not to be
allowed to still look forward to our occasional interchange of
pleasant friendly communications, and with my very kind
remembrances and most sincere good wishes, pray believe me, most
sincerely yours,

ELEANOR A. ORMEROD.

From Newman’s “British Moths,”
p. 193.

FIG. 57.—“SPINACH MOTH,” _CIDARIA DOTATA_, LINN.
]

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