THE CABBAGE-CATERPILLAR 293 



marked flavor: white mustard (Sinapis incana, -Lin.), 

 dyer's woad (I satis tinctoria, Lin.), wild radish (Rapha- 

 nus raphanistrum, Lin.), whitlow pepperwort (Lepidium 

 draba, Lin.), hedge-mustard (Sisymbrium oMdnale, 

 Scop.). On the other hand, the leaves of the lettuce, 

 the bean, the pea, the corn-salad are obstinately refused. 

 Let us be content with what we have seen : the fare has 

 been sufficiently varied to show us that the Cabbage- 

 caterpillar ^feeds exclusively on a large number of cru- 

 cifers, perhaps even on all. 



As these experiments are made in the enclosure of a 

 bell-cage, one might imagine that captivity impels the 

 flock to feed, in the absence of better things, on what 

 it would refuse were it free to hunt for itself. Having 

 naught else within their reach, the starvelings consume 

 any and all Cruci ferae, without distinction of species. 

 Can things sometimes be the same in the open fields, 

 where I play none of my tricks? Can the family of 

 the White Butterfly be settled on other Cruci fers than 

 the cabbage? I start a quest along the paths near the 

 gardens and end by finding on wild radish and white 

 mustard colonies as crowded and prosperous as those 

 established on cabbage. 



Now, except when the metamorphosis is at hand, the 

 caterpillar of the White Butterfly never travels : he does 

 all his growing on the identical plant whereon he saw 

 the light. The caterpillars observed on the wild radish, 

 as well as other households, are not, therefore, emigrants 

 who have come as a matter of fancy from some cabbage- 

 patch in the neighborhood: they have hatched on the 



