308 FLORAL AND INSECT ANALOGIES. 



successive integuments (of root, stalk, and floral leaves), the 

 (lower and fruit in process of formation. The chrysalis, that 

 shroud or cover which at once protects and imprisons the 

 winged creature it encloses, finds its correspondence in the 

 defensive calyx which enwraps the delicate corolla. Both burst 

 from their envelopes in perfect form, the Insect to die, 

 the flower to fade, soon after having provided for the con- 

 tinuance of their kind. 



In the habits, no less than in the structure, of the Butterfly 

 and the flower, there is observable no slight degree of corres- 

 pondence. In the gloom of night or of cloudy weather, the 

 Insect folds its wings, the flower its wing-like petals ; and as 

 (lowers love and turn towards the sun, so Butterflies open 

 their pinions to receive his welcome rays, sometimes alter- 

 nately closing them in fan-like motion, to temper probably 

 his too ardent beams. Sometimes, with the devoted worship 

 of the sun-flower, a Butterfly will follow the God of Day in 

 his ascension and decline. Our Purple Emperor* mounts from 

 his leafy throne, the top of an oak or elm tree, to a height 

 invisible and highest under a noonday sun; then, redescending, 

 lowers his flight with the setting luminary. 



As the blowing of flowers can be forced or retarded by 

 artificial heat or cold, so it has been found with the emerge- 

 nient of Butterflies. Reaumur made many successful experi- 

 ments, by aid of hot-houses and hens, upon various chrysalides, 



' Apatura Iris. 



