1 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



^fig. 5). The eggs of the Meadow Brown (fig. 6), and 

 the "Wood Argus (fig. 7), are globular — the former with 

 lines on its surface like the meridian lines on a geogra- 

 phical globe, and a pretty scalloping at the top that 

 gives a flower-like appearance to that portion; tha 

 latter has the whole surface honey-combed with a net- 

 work of hexagonal cells. Such are a few of the devices 

 that ornament the earliest cradle of the butterfly : but 

 probably those of every species would well repay their 

 examination to any one who possesses a microscope. 



Prompted by a most remarkable instinct, and one 

 that could not have originated in any experience of 

 personal advantage, the female butterfly, when seeking 

 a depository for her eggs, selects with unerring cer- 

 tainty the very plant which, of all others, is best fitted 

 for the support of her offspring, who, when hatched, 

 find themselves surrounded with an abundant store of 

 their proper food. 



Many a young botanist would be puzzled at first 

 sight to tell a sloe-bush from a buckthorn-bush. Not 

 so, however, with our Brimstone butterfly : passing by 

 all the juicy hedge-plants, which look quite as suitable, 

 one would think, she, with botanical acumen, fixes upon 

 the buckthorn ; either the common one, or, if that is 

 not at hand, upon another species of rhamnus — the 

 oerry-bearing alder — which, though a very different 

 .ooking plant, is of the same genus, and shares the 

 same properties. She evidently works out the natural 

 system of botany, and might have been a pupil of 



