THE BIRTH OF A BUTTERFLY 



41 



PERFECT BUTTERFLY. 



from the now useless shell a creature all 

 body with small, much-crumpled wings 

 The process has taken less than one min- 

 ute, and should our attention wander for 

 that minute we shall have missed it alto- 

 gether. We think, at first sight, that 

 something must be wrong- with him and 

 that he must have been "born" deformed, 

 for he looks very little like the beautiful 

 insects that we see hovering about the 

 flowers in the garden. We must have 

 patience, however, and watch closely, for 

 this is one of the most interesting parts 

 of the whole performance. 



Slowly and steadily the wings unfold, 

 and as steadily the body grow\s smaller, 

 for the life juices are being pumped from 

 the body into the wings until they reach 

 their full size and beauty. They still 

 hang limp and useless, however, for they 

 are damp and need to dry out and 

 strengthen before thev can be used. Pres- 

 ently our little friend leaves his shell and 

 crawls to some higher point on the plant 

 wdiere, for the next four or five hours, 

 he will remain while his wings dry and 

 stififen. During this time he now and 

 then tests them and learns their use bv 

 slowlv ooening and shutting them until, 

 finally, feeling that he can at last trust 



liimself to wings, he leaves his perch and 

 flies forth into the world. What a beauti- 

 ful and graceful creature he now is, and 

 how different from the crawling worm of 

 but two short weeks before ! We can 

 hardly believe it possible and vet we have 

 watched the change take place and know 

 that it is true. 



All butterflies and moths must pass 

 through the four stages in their metamor- 

 phosis to the perfect insect. First, the 

 egg; second, the caterpillar or larva; 

 third, the pupa or chrysalid ; and fourth, 

 the perfect insect or imago. Most of 

 them, however, take much longer in the 

 process than does this tiny monarch. 

 Many of them pass the winter in the 

 third, or pupal stage, either wound up 

 in cocoons or buried in the ground or 

 under stones or loose bark, and with 

 these the changes are not easy to watch,. 

 but this royal acquaintance of ours passes: 

 through all the stages in from three to 

 four weeks, and, for that reason, is the 

 best one for us to study. — "The School- 

 mate." (By permission, with courtesy of 

 the illustrations). 



What Makes "Bird's-Eye" Maple? 



The explanation of the phenomenon is 

 simple, and a person with a good magni- 

 fying glass can work it out for himself. 

 The bird's-eye figure is produced by ad- 

 ventitious buds. These have their origin 

 under the bark of the trunk. The first 

 buds of that kind may develop when the 

 tree is quite small. They are rarely able 

 to force their way through the bark and 

 become branches, but they may live 

 many years just under the bark, growing 

 in length as the trunk increases in size, 

 but seldom appearing on the outside of 

 the bark If one such bud dies, another 

 will hkely rise near it and continue the 

 irritation wdiich produces the fantastic 

 growth known as bird's-eye. It is said 

 that the Japanese produce artificial bird's- 

 eye growth in certain trees by inserting- 

 buds beneath the bark. The Field Mu- 

 seum, Chicago, has a sample of what is 

 claimed to be artificially produced bird's- 

 eye wood from Japan. — 'American For- 

 estry." 



The Curtain of the Dawn. 



Aflame are all its folds 

 When we at first behold; 



But the coming of the orb of day- 

 Transmutes the flame to gold. 



— Emma Peirce. 



