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THE OSMIAE.
THEIR HABITS.
February has its sunny days, heralding spring, to which rude winter will reluctantly yield place.

In snug corners, among the rocks, the great spurge of our district, the characias of the Greeks, the jusclo of the Provencals, begins to lift its drooping inflorescence and discreetly opens a few sombre flowers.

Here the first midges of the year will come to slake their thirst.

By the time that the tip of the stalks reaches the perpendicular, the worst of the cold weather will be over.
Another eager one, the almond-tree, risking the loss of its fruit, hastens to echo these preludes to the festival of the sun, preludes which are too often treacherous.