272 OLD GENTLEWOMAN MOTH. 



imp here feasts at leisure, and nips in the bud many an infant 

 rose, whose cradling leaflets, intended for its own protection, 

 only serve to conceal the proceedings of its destroyer. 



Turning from rose to lilac, we find numbers of its leaves 

 rolled up, both cross and lengthwise, their return to a natural 

 position being prevented by silken stays or braces. These are 

 the rollings and weavings of a caterpillar,"* which in due season 

 will become, as its mother was before it, a small chocolate- 

 coloured moth, like others, a provident parent, who took 

 good care to lay her eggs on the leaf best suited for the exercise 

 of her offspring's ingenuity and appetite. 



In the kitchen, no less than in the flower-garden, have 

 these parent moths been busy, at our cost, for their families' 

 support. Cabbages, outwardly skeletons, but still sound at 

 heart, attest the presence of caterpillar ravagers ; but let us 

 not be hasty in condemnation. For once, a moth is not at the 

 bottom, at the beginning, more properly, of the mischief. 

 The maternal ancestor of these spoliators of the leaves of kale, 

 has been, no doubt, a Cabbage Butterfly, and her devouring 

 brood partaking in a measure of the character of their sun- 

 delighting parent, go to work openly on the exterior of the 

 plant. But it is not so with the destructive progeny of that 

 night-hag moth, known in some places as the Old Gentle- 

 ^voman ) t which, darkly dangerous, penetrate and prey on the 

 very heart of the cabbage. In England, and particularly in 



* Lozotcenia ribeana. f Mamestra brassicce. 



