21–27 June 1847

An Orientalist, who was a Hercules among the bugs and curculios, recommended to me a Per- sian experiment of setting a lamp under the plum tree in a whitewashed tub with a little water in it by night. But the curculio showed no taste for so elegant a death. A few flies and harmless beetles perished, and one genuine Yankee spider instantly wove his threads across the tub, thinking that there was likely to be a crowd and he might as well set up his booth and win something for himself At night in the gar- den all bugdoin and flydom is abroad. This year is like Africa or New Holland, all surpris- ing forms and masks of creeping, flying, and loathsomeness.