20 SEPTEMBER 1935, Page 16

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Honey Scents Where this Comma was seen the gorgeous Peacocks and Red Admirals proper to autumn have been rarer than in memory. Happily, they appear to be as common as usual in the west. The secretary of a Devon naturalists' society writes to tell me that his Buddleias have been beset by numbers of Peacocks and Admirals. They are ; of course peculiarly fond of this delectable 'shrub. I am 'inclined to think that they rather prefer the variety Veitchiana variabilis before the later and more deeply coloured varieties. Their preference is easily accounted for. Of all the plants in the garden its scent is nearest to that of pure honey. Perhaps the closest rival in this attribute is the wild and very common yellow bedstraw. That queer heathlike bush, the golden diplopappas (a favourite with flies, but not butterflies), has -a honey-scented flower, but there is added an aliquid marl that is displeasing to some noses. The butterfly is in some regards more fastidious than the fly, but both have a sur- prising taste for rotten fruit.