274 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P. 



half the number of cells in that particular one, and 

 go -elsewhere~to construct others. Or it may be that 

 the supply of the particular leaves is limited, 

 necessitating its seeking a different locality for com- 

 pleting that marvellous impulse of building and 

 providing for the perpetuation of its species. In any 

 case, whether the nest be a large one or a small one, 

 the last cover being laid upon the last cell, the 

 industrious artificer encloses all with loose earth and 

 levels it to one smooth unbroken surface : its great 

 task being completed, it soars away leaving its off- 

 spring to their fate, apparently enclosed in their 

 earthly sepulchre, an offspring which it will never 

 see, and if it saw would never know. Meanwhile the 

 fluid contents of the egg are slowly metamorphosed 

 into definite and distinct structures with specialised 

 functions; and in a few weeks the enclosing membrane 

 bursts, and there issues from it an elongated fleshy 

 grub destitute of limbs and clothed with a semi- 

 transparent skin through which the digestive organs 

 may be faintly seen at work, and the pair of black 

 jaws on either side of the mouth wallow in the 

 luscious and nutritious food. Surrounded by this 

 store it rapidly increases in size, so much so that in a 

 few weeks the food that was provided and stored so 

 admirably by the parent, sufficient and only sufficient, 

 to nourish the young grub through all the stages in its 

 existence where food is requisite, to that final stage when 

 there is neither any left nor any wanted. The matured 

 larva, now that there remains no food to corrupt 

 within the cell, passes excreta for the first time, thus 

 showing the nutritious nature of the food supplied to 

 it, that none is wasted, all being appropriated to its 

 structure during its growth ; when that is com- 

 pleted, nature adopts the means of conveying any 

 waste material to the exterior which must necessarily 

 accumulate through the waste of tissue consequent 

 upon the action of life. Then spinning round itself a 

 close brown fibrous cocoon it prepares itself for that 

 final change, the last that intervenes between it and 

 that glorious imago state when it can wing its way 

 through the atmosphere. Remaining in this dense 

 cocoon almost motionless, and without food, the 

 immature organs develope, appropriating to them- 

 selves the material accumulated in the tissues of the 

 less important parts of the organism, until it gradually 

 assumes the pupa state, in which condition the 

 general form of the coming insect may be observed, 

 the antennce and legs gracefully curved upon the 

 ventral side of the body and the various parts of the 

 mouth folded in their position, the divisions of the 

 head, thorax, and abdomen ; while in more advanced 

 specimens the outline of the wings may be traced. 



By the middle of July the egg that was deposited 

 in May has gone through those series of changes it 

 was destined to pass before arriving at that perfect 

 state of organisation which characterises the perfect 

 insect, the suppressed hum of whose trembling wings 

 may be heard as it gnaws its exit through the roof of 



its cell ; then burrowing through the thin crust of 

 earth that covered all it appears in daylight. After 

 pluming the bright fresh hairs of its new coat for 

 a few moments it wings its way (untaught though it 

 be) with an unerring flight from its subterranean 

 home to revel for a while among the flowers that 

 clothe our hedgerows with open and opening petals. 

 And then the instinct that ensures the continuity of 

 its species in the following year originates, and it 

 begins to construct a nest for its eggs in a similar 

 manner to that pursued by its parent. Then either 

 perishing with the first frost, or hibernating through 

 the wdnter, it continues its existence into another 

 summer, its eggs the while pursuing their develop- 

 ment mature, and the perfected progeny appear in 

 the following May. 



Henry W. King. 



A BOTANICAL RAMBLE ROUND BATH. 

 No. II. 



CONKWELL, &C. 



[Continued from page 230.] 



"\ "\ J E had been waiting patiently, day by day, for 

 V V a change in the weather, in order that we 

 might set out on a voyage of discovery to Conkwell. 

 At last, a fine day having dawned, we started off 

 with our collecting case, and having journeyed by 

 the Great Western Railway to Timpley Stoke, started 

 from that point for Conkwell on foot. Though for 

 the most part conversant with the locality lying 

 between Stoke and Freshford, and Freshford and 

 Bradford-on-Avon, we unfortunately had not paid 

 in former years sufficient attention to the intricacies 

 of Conkwell, which place brought more before our 

 minds the merry picnic parties at which we had 

 been present in its sylvan retreats, than rambles in 

 search of botanical specimens. 



Unfortunately, through ignorance of a short cut, 

 which is we believe to be found by the canal side, we 

 had to do ourselves the penance of climbing Winsle^ 

 Hill, never a pleasant task; arriving after much labour 

 at its summit, we branched off to the left, through a 

 lane, which from its length bid fair to be an exception 

 to most, which, however long, are declared to have a 

 turning somewhere or other. Trudging along this 

 lane, known in the neighbourhood as "Blackberry 

 Lane," we suddenly beheld at some distance in a field 

 on our left, a very curious appearance ; in fact it can 

 only be described as the aspect that a number of 

 sticks coloured blue might present closely crowded 

 together when viewed at a distance. Of course we 

 were anxious to discover what it was. When we 

 came up to the field, we were delighted at the sight 

 spread out before us, so beautiful was it. It consisted 

 of nothing less than a large field almost entirely 

 covered as far as the eye could reach with plants of 



