LEAF-ROLLERS 191 



extreme edge of the border, at the lateral corner opposite 

 to that whereat the work commenced. This is the key- 

 stone upon which the stability of the rest depends. The 

 Rhynchites redoubles her cares and patience. With 

 the end of her rostrum, expanded spatulawise, she 

 presses, at one point after the other, the edge to be 

 fixed, even as the tailor presses the recalcitrant edges 

 of a seam with his iron. For a long, a very long time, 

 without moving, she pushes and pushes, awaiting the 

 proper adhesion. Point by point, the whole of the 

 corner welt is fastidiously sealed. 



How is adhesion obtained ? If only some thread or 

 other were brought into play, one would readily look upon 

 the rostrum as a sewing-machine planting its needle 

 perpendicularly into the stuff. But the comparison is 

 not allowable : there is no filament employed in the 

 work. The explanation of the adherence lies elsewhere. 



The leaf is young, we said ; the fine pads of its denticula- 

 tions are glands whence ooze liquid beads of glue. These 

 drops of viscous matter are the gum, the sealing-wax. 

 With the pressure of its beak, the insect makes it gush 

 more plentifully from the glands. It then has only to 

 hold the signet in position and wait for the impress to 

 acquire consistency. Taken all round, it is our method 

 of sealing a letter. If it hold ever so little, the leaf, 

 losing its elasticity gradually as it withers, will soon 

 cease to fly back and will of itself retain the scroll-form 

 imposed upon it. 



The work is done. It is a cigar of the diameter of a 

 thick straw and about an inch long. It hangs perpen- 

 dicularly from the end of the bruised and bent stalk. It 

 has taken the whole of a day to make. After a short 

 spell of rest, the mother tackles a second leaf and, working 



