The Banded Epeira 65 



from the too -impetuous current. It hangs 

 from the drooping end of the branch of a 

 poplar, an old willow or an alder, all of them 

 tall trees, favouring the banks of streams. 



It consists of a cotton bag, closed all round, 

 save for a small opening at the side, just suffi- 

 cient to allow of the mother's passage. In 

 shape, it resembles the body of an alembic, a 

 chemist's retort with a short lateral neck, or, 

 better still, the foot of a stocking, with the 

 edges brought together, but for a little round 

 hole left at one side. The outward appearances 

 increase the likeness : one can almost see the 

 traces of a knitting-needle working with coarse 

 stitches. That is why, struck by this shape, 

 the Provencal peasant, in his expressive lan- 

 guage, calls the Penduline lou Dehassaire, the 

 Stocking-knitter. 



The early-ripening seedlets of the wiUows and 

 poplars furnish the materials for the work. 

 There breaks from them, in May, a sort of vernal 

 snow, a fine down, which the eddies of the air 

 heap in the crevices of the ground. It is a 

 cotton similar to that of our manufactures, 

 but of very short staple. It comes from an 



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