266 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



obtain two instead of one brood of eggs and 

 larvse in a season. Keaumur suggests that the 

 great and wealthy who have good hothouses, 

 might give all the appearance of summer to them 

 by introducing pupa3 in winter, which would soon 

 be hatched, and butterflies or other insects might 

 be seen flying about in December or January, 

 from flower to flower ! But he forgot that gar- 

 deners generally are rather averse to the presence 

 of insects at all, and particularly to the all-devour- 

 ing larvae of many species of butterflies, which 

 would soon commit sad havoc among their choicest 

 plants. We may recommend such experiments 

 to the reader as highly interesting and easy 

 of performance in a common sitting-room, where 

 a fire is kept in winter, with no other apparatus 

 than a tin-box, or a glass jar of very moderate 

 size ; even a pill-box would answer every pur- 

 pose. 



Some curious experiments on pupae of another 

 kind were also performed by Keaumur. He var- 

 nished them over with various varnishes, and 

 found that the pupa3 thus varnished were de- 

 veloped several weeks later than others of the 

 same species unvarnished. He tried similar expe- 



