July 29, 1875. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



95 



Thns do spring and summer join hand-in-hand, and bridge- 

 over the too-flowerless month of June. This simple and 

 effective mode of flower gardening is suitable to many places, 

 and it is not unlikely that it will spread when combinations 

 of other flowers besides those mentioned wUl suggest them- 

 selves as applicable to the object of malung a garden attractive 

 over a larger period than is the case at present. — W. 



CHAPTERS ON INSECTS FOK GAEDENEES. 



No. 2. 

 There was a man of some note in the scientific world who 

 went to pay a summer visit to a country parson, an old school- 

 fellow of his. He was much inclined to do the agreeable, so 

 when his friend asked him if he would give a little sort of 

 lecture or talk on na- 

 tural history in his 

 schoolroom there, 

 the man of science 

 agreed thereto. 

 " But," said he to 

 the cleric, " I'm 

 afraid I may use by 

 chance some words 

 that your folks won't 

 quite understand. 

 I'll watch your face, 

 and if there is any- 

 thing that strikes 

 yon as being unin- 

 telligible, just touch 

 your nose." This 

 was agreed, and the 

 audience assembled ; 

 after awhile the cir- 

 cumstances of insect 

 life came under con- 

 sideration, and the 

 lecturer began a sen- 

 tence with the words 

 ' ' In the metamor- 

 phosis of insects," 

 when he saw his 

 friend's finger lifted 

 to the organ of 

 smell. Quickly he 

 changed his phrase, 

 "In the transforma- 

 tions of insects," 

 when the menacing 

 fi uger went up again ; 

 and a third time he 

 went on, " Or in 

 what are called the 

 changes of state in 

 insects ;" but again 

 he was stopped, and, 

 growing desperate, 

 he said, " Or when 

 they turn one thing 

 into another," a 

 statement unscien- 

 tific certainly, yet 

 so far intelligible 

 that it raised a laugh, under cover of which the speaker pro- 

 ceeded to quote some simple and easily recognisable facts. I 

 refer to this story to show how far from easy it is to most of 

 us who speak or write on entomology, so far to popularise 

 the terms of science as to make the unscientific individual 

 perceive that we are desirous of being, not the obscurers, but 

 the interpreters of nature. You may scrupulously avoid every 

 word or phrase that seems technical or difficult, and yet, in 

 your supposed simplicity, be far from making your meaning 

 clear to the person or persons you address. 



Now the changes insects undergo are puzzling to some 

 extent even to those who make insects their study ; and though 

 one may glide smoothly over a phrase which comprehends 

 them all, and say that there is first the egg, secondly the larva, 

 thirdly the pupa, and fourthly the imago or perfect insect, 

 it is not easy in many instances to separate one from the 

 other, escept, indeed, the egg, which cannot well be mistaken 



1, Leaf with patches of epgB laid upon it. 



2, Patches of recently-laid egcs. 



S, Egga in which caterpillars can be perceived, [emergred. 

 4, Patch of egg3 from which the caterpillars have already 



for a later development of insect life. Unless in a rare case 

 of accidental resemblance or mimicry, when we find an egg 

 we are not likely to suppose it either a larva or a pupa ; but 

 when we come to define the two latter, and state what each 

 is, and what it does, we cannot make an absolute rule. In 

 the larval or second stage of their life we are wont to say that 

 insects feed and move about; while the pupa is quiescent, 

 living without food, unless, perhaps, atmospheric air in some 

 instances afford a sort of sustenance. But there are pnp» 

 brisk enough in all reason , as amongst the aquatic insects of 

 numerous species. Only a short time ago I brought home a 

 dragon-fly pupa, displaying, visibly enough, his rudimentary 

 wings, and he busied himself in taking sundry excursions up 

 and down the plants in my aqua-vivarium, until one morning 

 he popped his head above the surface and flew off, leaving 



behind his filmy in- 

 vestiture. As he had 

 conducted himself 

 peaceably I brought 

 home a larger pupa 

 of that family, but 

 he was no sooner 

 " at home " than he 

 began to devour his 

 neighbours promis- 

 cuously. I bore with 

 him while he drew 

 " caddis " larvaj out 

 of their cases or 

 portable dwellings, 

 but when he savagely 

 fell upon a young 

 larva of a water 

 beetle that I wished 

 to rear I was obliged 

 to serve an eject- 

 ment. Then in 

 some groups it is 

 by a very imperfect- 

 ible move that larva 

 advances to the dig- 

 nity of pupa, and 

 the pupa, again, 

 developes into the 

 mature insect. Nay, 

 it might be said that 

 some images are al- 

 ways pupfB, were it 

 not rather Irish. In- 

 stinct urges nearly 

 all insects to the 

 concealment of the 

 egg, or perhaps we 

 might state the fact 

 better by remarking 

 that from their mi- 

 nute size and usual 

 location the eggs of 

 most insects escape 

 observation and 

 need to be searched 

 for. Pupffi also are 

 frequently hidden, 

 so that it is in the 



Vine pvralis in its three btates. 



5, Small caterpillars hanging by threads. 



6, Leaf with the chrysalis. 



7, Caterpillar. 



8, Moth. 



second and final stages that insects are best laiown to most 

 people, even to the gardener and the entomologist. Yet could 

 the gardener but be convinced how much advantage he might 

 gain in the case of many species by searching them out and 

 destroying them in the egg, the time bestowed on the work would 

 be well rewarded. This would have the additional recom- 

 mendation in the eyes of some sensitive persons, that it cannot 

 be in the least degree cruel. Eggs certainly don't feel. With- 

 out going into minute details, which would be out of place, 

 possibly tedious, in this series, which is designed to help the 

 readers to take a general reconnoitre of the various orders, a 

 few prefatory remarks on the transformations of insects taken 

 as a whole will put us in a better position for our survey. 



The old naturahsts— not such fools many of them as modern 

 " new-lights" would have us believe — held to the axiom that 

 every living thing comes from an egg, and therein they were 

 anticipating what has since been as good aa proved, only its 



