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THE GARDEN-SPIDER (EPEIRA DIADEM A). 



Our vignette this month brings under the notice of our readers an 

 old and interesting inhabitant of our gardens. 



Who can pass it, and not pause to admire its portly figure and 

 handsome livery ? And as we know of no offence it ever offers to the 

 horticulturist, let us recommend it to closer inspection than is often 

 bestowed on an insect which many of us were taught in our childhood 

 to avoid and detest. How well does it repay even our unscientific 

 observation, as we watch the manner in which it constructs its beau- 

 tifully geometrical web, takes its prey, encases it when secured in 

 a silken envelope, serving as a larder to which it may resort on a 

 future occasion! Joshua Sylvester, writing in the year 1600, dis- 

 plays the same taste for observing this insect as ourselves ; for thus 

 he sings : 



" Still at the centre she her warp begins, 

 Then round, at lengths, her little thread she spins, 

 And equal distance to their compass leaves ; 

 Then neat and nimbly her new web she weaves, 

 With her fine shuttle circularly drawn 

 Through all the circuit of her open lawn ; 

 Open, lest else ungentle winds should tear 

 Her cypress tent, weaker than any hair ; 

 And that the foolish fly might easier get 

 Within the meshes of her curious net." 



