THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 343 



-Few objects are more beautiful than the delicate spiral threads, 

 which are easily seen in the foot-stalks of most leaves by gentlj 

 breaking them across, and then carefully, and, to a slight extent, 

 separating the parts. The leaves of the pelargonium, strawberry, 

 vine, and asparagus, furnish interesting examples of this curious 

 structure. 



The spiral fibres are not always confined to the leaves and stem, 

 being sometimes found investing the seed, as in the genera Salvia 

 and Gollomia. To view them with the microscope, it is only neces- 

 sary, to cut off a small piece of the outer coat of the seed, and to 

 place this in a drop of water on a bit of glass, when it will imme- 

 diately throw out vast numbers of these curious bodies in every 

 direction. 



In concluding these brief and desultory microscopic illustrations, 

 designed only, we are anxious to observe, for the uninitiated reader, 

 we may be permitted to remind him that, in the vegetable as in the 

 animal kingdom, every structure, however minute or humble it may 

 appear, constitutes a link in the great chain of creation, 



"All being parts of one stupendous whole," 



and that, in the formation and sustension of the minutest vegetable 

 atoms, the beneficence and power of the Great Creator are as fully 

 displayed, as in the wisdom that guides the planetary spheres. 



INVADERS, VISITORS, AND SETTLERS IN OUR 



GARDENS. 



(Continued from page 313.) 



j]AIONG the different invaders of our gardens, there are 

 none, perhaps, whom we are so unwilling to have there 

 as settlers, as those near relations of bees — the wasps. 

 During the spring and early summer, we perhaps forget 

 all about them, just at the very time when they are so 

 busy themselves in constructing their dwelling-places, and when too 

 they are really serviceable to us, as we shall presently see ; and it is 

 only when they seem to appear on the scene as the natural enemies 

 of the human race, that we begin to notice aud dread the robbing and 

 plundering propensities, and the fierce vindictiveness of our garden 

 rifle- corps in its gaudy uniform of black and yellow. 



Like the earwig, we after all give the wasp more credit for mis- 

 chief than he deserves. He carries, it is true, a most formidable 

 weapon — a sharp-pointed stiletto, which can be sent deep into our 

 fiesh, and a bag of poison, of which a single drop poured into tho 

 wound, can cause us hours, and even days, of pain and inconvenience. 

 But has the wasp really any bloodthirsty designs towards us, or any 

 natural desire to use his deadly weapons against us ? Par from it. 

 A wasp, in fact, only attacks and wounds us in self-defence. He has 

 a natural desire, it is quite true, for the sweet juices of plums and 

 nectarines, and other luscious fruits, and once having taken posses- 



JTovember. 



