The Rose-Chafer, or Rose-Beetle, the _Cetonia aurata_ of entomologists, is a beautiful insect, very common in England but unknown in our own country. “On the back of the corslet burnished green and gold are the prevailing hues, on breast-plate, cuisse, and gauntlet the lustre of the precious metal is predominant, mingled with changeable reflections of purplish crimson,” says the writer of Acheta Domestica. “Like the rest of its tribe, this pretty beetle undergoes the usual triple metamorphosis of insect life. From an egg laid within the earth, he emerges a grub or larva, to feed on roots, most usually those of the rose. * * Thus, hermit-like, and upon this hermit’s fare, he lives in dark seclusion for four years, and when these are over, constructs for himself, about the month of March, a still more straitened cell—an earth-formed case, resembling a pigeon’s egg. He proceeds, under its cover, to the second stage of _pupa_—from thence to the third and last estate; and after remaining another fortnight under ground, for his enameled mail to acquire hardness, comes forth in all his splendor to meet the roses. The antennæ are of curious and very elegant formation. They each terminate in a knob composed of several laminæ or plates, opening or shutting like the leaves of a book, and which also like a book, can be put away at the pleasure of their insect owner, on a shelf or deep cavity on either side its head. They are always thus put carefully away when the chafer is inactive, or asleep. It has been noticed as a singular fact that the rose-beetle has been found not unfrequently, while in its two first stages, the tenant of an ant-hill, and that without being attacked by its carnivorous inhabitants. It is hence called, in some countries, “king of the ants;” and it is said also that German cattle dealers invest it with supernatural powers, and feed it carefully in beds as a means of insuring prosperity to their herds and fortunes.”—_Acheta Domestica, second series, p. 72, English edition._ The true rose-chafer has not been found among our American beetles. NOTE F. DYER’S BROOM, (_Genista Tinctoria_) p. 58. There are many species of Broom in the old world. The common Broom of England has large, yellow, butterfly-shaped blossoms, and growing, as it does, in large patches on waste lands, produces a vary brilliant effect when in bloom. But it is also very useful in its way. The twigs were probably the first besoms of the housewives of old, in days when witches were believed to ride on broom-sticks to their gatherings; certain it is, at least, that our brooms of the present hour derive their name from the early use of the twigs of the plant for similar purposes. Cordage, matting, and even coarse cloth have been made of the fibres of the Broom. Houses are sometimes thatched with the twigs, which have been also used for tanning instead of oak bark.