TIIK CYCLE OF LIFE 



13 



month of spring the eggs hatch, and the cycle of grass- 

 hopper life begins to repeat itself. 



The Butterfly.- -Butterflies arc and have been fertile 

 subjects for the writer's pen and the artist's brush. 

 The velvet-winged butterfly is a symbol of the light, the 

 careless, the free, and the beautiful. Let, us see whether 

 " it toils not, neither does it spin " can be said truly, 

 of the butterfly. For study let us take a general favor- 

 ite, the black swallowtail. 1 The female butterfly seeks 

 her nourishment from the apple and thistle blossoms, 

 but when the time has come for egg-laying she sails to 

 some neglected corner in the garden, or shady, unfre- 

 quented dell where the wild parsnip 2 or the wild celery 3 

 grows, or some other plant of this family. 4 



It was during the first days of June we 

 watched her. She placed her pale yellow 

 eggs singly on the small flower-stems of the 

 cluster. 



These globular eggs are about one- 

 twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, and 

 soon become brownish gray, soft and ' 

 moist. Such conditions indicate that swaiiowtaii on 



. flower-stem of 



hatching is about to occur, (bee trontis- wad parsnip, 

 piece.) At this time, with the aid of a Enlarged ' 

 hand-lens, motion may sometimes be perceived inside 

 of the semi-transparent shell. A little black point ap- 

 pears through the shell: it is the tiny mandibles eating 

 their wav, making a round hole sufficiently large for 



(/ 7 O / 



the little dark caterpillar, wriggling and twisting, to 

 escape. 



1 Papilio polyxenes Fabr. tPeucedanwnffKniculaceum. 



-Pastinaca saliva L. * L'mbelliferce, 



