The Clythrae 



has dropped, allowing the seeds to fall? It 

 has all the accuracy, all the elegance of the 

 materpieces of the vegetable kingdom. 



After learning the origin of the object, he 

 would be no less doubtful as to the nature of 

 the materials, or rather of their cement. 

 Water will not soften, will not disintegrate 

 the shell. This must be so, else the first 

 shower of rain would reduce the grub's gar- 

 ment to pulp. Fire does not affect it greatly 

 either. When exposed to the flame of a can- 

 dle, the jar, without changing shape, loses its 

 brown colour and assumes the tint of burnt 

 ferruginous earth. The groundwork of the 

 material therefore is of a mineral nature. 

 It remains for us to discover what the cement 

 can be that gives the earthy element its brown 

 colour, holds it together and makes it solid. 



The grub is ever on its guard. At the 

 least flurry, it shrinks into its shell and does 

 not budge for a long time. Let us be as pa- 

 tient as the grub. We shall surely, some day 

 or other, manage to surprise it at work. 

 And indeed I do. It suddenly backs into its 

 jar, disappearing inside entirely. In a mo- 

 ment it reappears, carrying a brown pellet 

 in its mandibles. It kneads the pellet and 

 works it up with a little earth gathered on 

 the threshold of its dwelling; it softens the 

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