dopterous_ race is
not, it seems, to be exterminated; and there, in evidence, lies that
very blue-zoned peacock-butterfly, with his wings extended, and
motionless as if pinned to the gravel, on the same sunny spot where we
have been in the habit of noticing him for these three successive
Aprils past. The eye that follows butterflies takes note also of the
flowers on which they settle, but we must not indulge ourselves in
pointing them out to the reader, who, unless a botanist, or inclined
that way, might turn as restive as the young bride listening to her
"preceptor husband."

"He showed the flowers from stamina to root,
Calyx and corol, pericarp and fruit;
Of all the parts, the size, the use, the shape:
While poor Augusta panted to escape:
The various foliage various plants produce,
Lunate and lyrate, runcinate, retuse,
Latent and patent, papilous and plain;
'Oh!' said the pupil, 'it will turn my brain!'"

And, therefore, though "flowers, fresh in hue and many in their
class," absolutely "_implore_ the pausing step," we forbear, and will
let him off this time with rehearsing only three or four among
them:--the _Allium fragrans_, he will join with us, if he has been in
Italy, in the wish that _all_ onions there were like it! the _Anchusa
Italica_, through whose long funnel the proboscis of the ever-buzzing
_Bombylius_ finds its way to the sweet nectar prepared within; the
_Scilla Lilio-hyacinthus_--a _Squill_ masquerading it as a _Hyacinth_;
the leaves of the _Cnicus Syraicus_, most beautiful of thistles,
glistening here in abundance, and scarcely inferior in attractions to
the far-famed _Acanthus_. But the society of plants is as promiscuous
as our own, and accordingly we find here the jaundiced _Chelidonium_
filled with bilious juices; the feculent-smelling flowerets of the
_Smyrnum olusatrum_, and the stinking _Geranium robertianum_, mingle
with the sweets of _Calendula_, _Narcissus_, and _Jonquil_; not to
mention the _Orchis_ tribe, which flourishes in profusion. Traversing
the green arena of the amphitheatre,--where annual festas are held,
and occasional cricket matches played--to the left, and leaving the
Temple of Diana to the right, we come upon a deep descent just in
front of the villa, and enter it for a minute to cast a hasty
_coup-d'oeil_ at the ample frescoes of the ceiling and the grim
mosaics of the floor; the subjects of the latter, however, not being
congenial to an