32 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



history, and sets before us, in well-relieved contrast, 

 the foolish terrors of the unlearned gardener with 

 the collected bearing of the learned naturalist. 

 Would that this anecdote stood alone in the 

 records of natural history ! We have already seen 

 that it does not; and that the most groundless 

 apprehensions have taken their rise in the most in- 

 nocent and trifling of natural causes. 



By and by, after a little careful investigation, 

 the true artificer of these spells was discovered, 

 and proved to be a lowly insect, which has been 

 since called the rose-leaf-cutter bee. On closer 

 examination, these rolls of leaves, which are 

 almost as long and as large as a tooth-pick case, 

 were found to be made up of six or seven cells, 

 each separate from the rest, placed end to end, 

 and covered with a common coating of leaves. 

 The manner in which the roll is formed is as 

 follows : The insect sometimes makes a perfora- 

 tion in decayed wood, sometimes in the well- 

 trodden earth of a footpath; this she drives to 

 the depth of, perhaps, nine inches, and she then 

 proceeds to hang this apartment with its green 

 tapestry, for it must be understood, it is not the 

 leaves of the flower, but of the stem of the rose- 



