BUTTERCUP 



1021 



BUTTERFLY 



sweet it has fermented and has become rancid. 

 Such butter has probably been made from old 

 cream collected for several days, and it contains 

 decomposing particles of fat. There is a char- 

 acteristic test which pure butter, free from 

 artificial fats, responds to easily. If a bit of 

 butter be melted in a test tube set in warm, 

 not hot, water, and kept at an even tempera- 

 ture for half an hour, it should at the end of 

 that time show clear if pure; if not pure or 

 if it contains artificial fat it will be cloudy. 

 A little pure butter heated in a spoon over a 

 gas jet will simmer evenly and quietly, but 

 will proclaim the presence of oleomargarine by 

 noisy sputtering and popping. E.H.F. 



BUTTER 'CUP, or CROWFOOT, a dazzling 

 yellow wild flower or weed of the roadside 

 and field, found in England, the United States 

 and Canada. From May to September this 

 "little children's dower" brightens the waysides 

 and pasture-lands, but the farmer is not pleased 

 at its appearance; to him it is a troublesome 

 weed. Because of the bitter, burning juice in 

 the plants animals will not eat them. The 

 buttercup grows from one to two ai-d 6ne-half 

 feet high. The leaves usually have three parts 

 and are notched; the flowers, about an inch 

 across, have five smooth, shining petals of 

 yellow. There is also a creeping buttercup, 

 whose stem creeps along the ground and sends 

 out new roots here and there; also a swamp 

 buttercup which loves the moist, shady spots, 



and a water buttercup whose blossoms float on 

 the water. See RANUNCULUS. 



The buttercups, bright-eyed and bold, 



Held up their chalices of gold 



To catch the sunshine and the dew. 



DORR, in Centennial Poem. 



UTTERFLY, a beautiful insect with 

 wings so 'dainty and so brightly colored that 

 it is often referred to as a "winged flower." 

 That its name is made up of two common 

 words is perfectly plain, but the reason is not 

 so clear. Probably the "butter" refers to the 

 color of some of the best-known species. Little 

 children in learning to pronounce the long 

 name sometimes get it twisted about and give 

 it a form which seems much more fitting 

 "flutter-by." 



How Butterflies Differ from Moths. Other 

 insects there are which look much like the but- 

 terflies; these are the moths. In structure the 

 two are much alike, but there are certain sim- 



ple differences which will help anyone to dis- 

 tinguish between them. The butterflies are 

 usually bright-colored and have slender bodies, 

 while the moths are in general dusky and 

 thick-bodied; the butterflies love the sunshine 

 and are to be seen flitting about only in the 

 daytime, and rarely on a cloudy day, but the 

 moths are abroad in the twilight. Then, too, 

 the butterfly has a little knob or hook at the 

 end of its feelers, or antennae, while the moth 

 has not, but the most noticeable distinction of 

 all is that a butterfly when it alights holds its 

 wings erect, while a moth spreads its wings 

 out flat. An illustration showing fundamental 

 differences is given in the article MOTH. 



