The Life of the Fly 



The same books told me the name of the 

 one that had amused me so much with its 

 smoking chimney. It is called the puff-ball in 

 English, but its French name is the vesse-de^ 

 loup. I disliked the expression, which to my 

 mind smacked of bad company. Next to it 

 was a more decent denomination : Lycoperdon; 

 but this was only so in appearance, for Greek 

 roots sooner or later taught me that Lycoper- 

 don^ means vesse-de-loup and nothing else. 

 The history of plants abounds in terms which 

 it is not always desirable to translate. Be- 

 queathed to us by earlier ages less reticent than 

 ours, botany has often retained the brutal 

 frankness of words that set propriety at de- 

 fiance. 



How far-off are those blessed times when 

 my childish curiosity sought solitary exercise 

 in making itself acquainted with the mush- 

 room ! ^Eheu! Fugaces lahuntiir anniF 

 said Horace. Ah, yes, the years glide fleeting 

 by, especially when they are nearing their 

 end ! They were the merry brook that dallies 

 among the willows on imperceptible slopes; 

 to-day, they are the torrent swirling a thou- 



^It was so called by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort 

 (1656-1708), the French botanist, with the object of im- 

 proving upon the old Latin name, Crepitus lupi, by mak- 

 ing it less generally intelligible. — Translator's Note, 



398 



