292 THE PAPILIONINA^ OR BUTTERFLIES. 



of a small bristle which springs from the anterior 

 margin of the hinder wing and passes through a small 

 ring on the posterior margin of the fore-wing. From 

 the various forms assumed by the antennae in this 

 group, they are denominated Heterocera"^ . 



Amongst the many cheerful sights which greet our 

 eyes in the bright summer, none come more constantly 

 before ns, or tend more to the enlivening of almost 

 every scene, than the common large and small White 

 Butterflies (Pontia Brassicas and P. Rapce). It is 

 true that they cannot boast of any brilliancy of 

 colour, although their rich yellowish-white wings with 

 deep black markings possess a certain amount of 

 beauty ; but their graceful evolutions as they flutter 

 through the air, alighting now and then to suck up 

 the sweet nectar of the flowers through their delicate 

 spiral trunks, often give life to our fields and gardens 

 at a time when the heat has driven almost all other 

 creatures to seek repose. Nevertheless, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, their appearance is undoubtedly 

 unwelcome, for with all their sportive grace and appa- 

 rent idleness they have an important business to per- 

 form, that of finding a proper situation for the depo- \ 

 sition of their eggs, a process which, from its afl'ecting 

 some of our most important vegetables, cannot be re- 

 garded with any great satisfaction by the possessors 

 of kitchen-gardens. 



With this object in view the White Butterflies may 



be seen to quit the flower borders and hover over the 



beds of cabbages, every now and then alighting on 



the edge of one of the leaves and clinging for a minute 



* Gr. heteros, diflPerent. 



