2l8 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



specimen to study the genesis of such 

 minute beetles. 



The microscope and the photographic 

 reproduction in this issue of The Guide 

 to Nature from the original specimen 

 show how the developing offspring of 

 this minute larvae (hardly one-eighth of 

 an inch long) sheds its previous integu- 

 mental environments and gradually 

 frees itself entirely of all its former 

 hulls. The latter are nicely seen on 

 this photograph — about half way 

 stripped off its new anatomy — the 

 lower dark outlines with the charac- 

 teristic hairy integumental covering 

 (a) and (ab) being gradually peeled 

 off and folded up at the base part (ab) 

 of the new beetle's abdomen, when the 

 thus "newborn" little fellow is about 

 "ripe" to escape into the world — after 

 perhaps one more evolution of its tho- 

 racic organs, the wing parts and other 

 of its anatomy. Some outlines of the 

 (ringed) abdomen of this maturing to 

 bacco beetle are quite plainly seen 

 through the dark outlines of the old 

 hull (b) and the developing feet (c) 



and one antennal appendage — the 

 jointed and curved organ (d) at the 

 head parts (e) with both dark eyes 

 with lens, and the thoracic outlines (f) 

 are quite conspicuous. The entire pro- 

 cess resembles somewhat the shedding 

 process of certain hairy caterpillar 

 (larval butterflies) and other forms of 

 insect life, including the vast numbers 

 of all genera of beetles. 



When I first detected this specimen 

 it showed life, but its movements were 

 very feeble and hardly perceptible. It 

 was found snugly imbedded between 

 some of the cigar foldings, in a furrow 

 similar to the larvae found and des- 

 cribed and illustrated in the June issue 

 of The Guide to Nature, but it is a 

 much further advanced pupal state than 

 the one seen in the previous specimen 

 of the single cigar snecimen. 



This closes the history of the meta- 

 morphosis of "just a little bug,'' the 

 tobacco beetle ; and I hope I am not 

 again intruding too lengthily on the 

 valuable space of The Guide to 

 Nature. 



The Peony: "King of the Garden." 



BY GEORGE II. PETERSON, FAIR LAWN, X. J. 



The peony of to-day stands pre- 

 eminently and unquestioned "King of 

 the Garden," just as for ages the place 

 of "Queen" has been accorded to the 

 n>se, and, while the latter has ever been 

 associated in our minds as of the aris- 

 tocracy of flowers, the most of us have, 

 until recently at least, thought only of 

 the peony as we have of the hollyhock, 

 the larkspur and lavender of "Grand- 

 mother's garden," so often now referred 

 to. 



Since that day, however, the subject 

 of this sketch has undergone an evolu- 

 tion of wondrous development, until 



to-day, we have flowers on four-foot 

 stems, ranging from six to nine inches 

 in diameter, and in color from purest 

 snow white to deepest, blackish ma- 

 roon ; in all imaginable shades of pink 

 and yellow, and often in the same 

 flower combining in wondrous com- 

 bination many shades and colors. 

 Coarseness, at least in our minds, is 

 usually associated with great size, but 

 this is not true of the peony, for im- 

 mense as the flowers often are, their 

 delicacy of coloring is scarcely equalled 

 by the rose, and the silky satiny tex- 

 ture of its petals are often such as to 

 put sheer silk itself to blush. 



But, I hear some one say, "The chief 



