HAWK WEED-HEDGEHOG 



715 



either to avoid the giare of light or the attacks of 

 enemies, hides itself during 1 the day time beneath the 

 dead leaves lying; at the roots of trees, coining forth 

 to feed only at night. The caterpillars of the hawk- 

 moths are smooth, and furnished with sixteen legs, 

 the ten posterior being termed pro-legs ; they are of 

 a cylindiic form. They live solitarily, and feed upon 

 the leaves of vegetables, eating much at a time and 

 then making a long fast. They are at first very active, 

 and, when approached, fall from the leaf upon which 

 they were placed, suspending themselves by a thread ; 

 when more aged they become very sluggish, moving 

 only the head or the hind part of the body. It is in 

 the earth or upon its surface covered with leaves that 

 they undergo the chrysalis state, and make their 

 cocoons, which, however, contain but little silk. In 

 those species which have the proboscis very long in 

 the moth state, the chrysalis is furnished with a curved 

 appendage at its breast, in which the proboscis is 

 rolled up. The chrysalis state generally lasts seven 

 or eight months, but in some species (including the 

 giant Atropos) it does not exceed a fortnight. In 

 general there is but one generation during the year, 

 but the humming-bird hawkmoth (Sph. stellatarum) is 

 found in the perfect as well as in the larva state from 

 the spring until the first frosts of winter. See, for 

 structural and sectional details, the article SPHINX, as 

 well as those upon the DEATH'S-HEAD HAWKMOTH 

 and DiciLEi'Hu.A. 



HAWK WE ED is the Hieracium Alpinum of 

 Linnaeus, one of an extensive genus of herbaceous 

 plants, common in every dry pasture all over Europe. 

 HAWORTHIA (Duva'l). An extensive genus 

 of succulent plants, natives of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and separated from the genus Aloe by Duval. 

 The Hawortkias differ in habit from the generality of 

 the Aloes, and there is also some difference in the 

 form of the corolla. 



HAWTHORN is the Cratagus oxyarantha of 

 Linnaeus, one of our common hedge plants, and much 

 admired for the beauty and scent of its Mowers. There 

 are several rich coloured varieties in the gardens. 



HEART'S EASE is the Viola tricolor of Lin- 

 naeus, a common British plant, of which numerous 

 varieties are in the gardens, and now ranked as a 

 florist's flower. See VIOLARIE^:. 



HEART SEED is the Curdiospcrmum corindum oi 

 Lirinaus, a genus of climbing plants mostly found in 

 tropical countries. 



HEATH is the common name of that beautiful 

 family of alpine plants called by botanists Erica 

 They inhabit the northern, and a few of the loftiest 

 hills in the south of Europe ; but their grand habitat 

 is on the southern promontory of Africa, where thou- 

 sands of acres are covered with heaths in incredible 

 numbers, and with hundreds of different species, above 

 six hundred of which are already described. 



HEBENSTREITIA (Linnams). A genus of 

 undershrubs indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope 

 Class and order Didynamia Angiospermia, and natura! 

 order Verbenacea. Generic character : calyx of one 

 leaf, tubular, emarginate, opening lengthwise below 

 corolla, a cylindrical tube, limb one four-cleft lip ; sta- 

 mens inserted into the throat of the corolla ; filaments 

 short ; anthers incumbent and bursting transversely 

 style filiform ; stigma simple ; seed-vessel niembra- 

 naceous, one-celled, two-valved, and two-seeded 

 Greenhouse plants, and propagated by cuttings. 

 HEDERA (Linna3us.) A genus "of plants, the 



H. helix being the well known ivy. There are only 

 hree species of the genus as yet in the books ; 

 ne found in the Canary islands, and another in 

 famaica. The British species is found everywhere in 

 woods, and ha.s several remarkable characteristics ; 

 hough destined to creep on the ground, it steals 

 a permanent support from whatever is higher than it- 

 self; thus far it is a parasite, but it extracts no aliment 

 Tom its supporter. Its embrace, like that of the Boa, 

 s sometimes fatal ; it is an aspirant as long as there is 

 any thing to surmount, but becomes stationary w hen 

 t has reached the topmost point. It is indispensable 

 in picturesque scenery ; it clothes and supports in its 

 turn the tottering wall. Its berries afford a rich re- 

 past to numerous birds, and its melliferous flowers to 

 swarms of insects, and yet its leaves are disrelished 

 by every caterpillar, however voracious, but eaten 

 greedily by sheep, by which, were it not for its climb- 

 ing tendency, it would be quickly extirpated if ap- 

 proachable by the flock. Sheep suffer, however, for 

 their temerity in denuding the ivy, as it causes a pre- 

 mature shedding of their fleece early in the spring 

 so say the shepherds. The ivy is sacred to the owl, 

 the wren, and many other birds. There are several 

 varieties, among which the Irish is conspicuous. 



HEDGEHOG (Erinaceus\ A very singular genus 

 of insectivorous mammalia, belonging to Cuvicr's great 

 order Carnassier, and, in the structure of their teeth, 

 the least carnivorous, perhaps, of the whole order. 

 The most striking external character of these animals 

 is the spines w ith which their bodies are covered, and 

 this has been taken as a popular ground of classifica- 

 tion ; and the name hedgehog, or urchin (Herisson in 

 French), has been applied to other spiny mammalia, 

 such as the porcupines, which are rodentia ; to the 

 Dcodin among fishes ; and to the Echinus, or sea- 

 egg, which is a zoophyte, belonging to the pedicallated 

 echinadermata. The proper hedgehog, however, be- 

 longs to the flesh, or animal-matter eating division of 

 mammalia. 



Hedgehog. 



This is a very peculiar genus in the structure, in 

 appearance, and in manners ; and though the form of 

 their teeth, and various other structural particulars, 

 throw them into different parts of the system, hedge- 

 hogs appear, in their general relations to the system 

 of nature, to occupy nearly the same place in the 

 northern countries as the armadillos do in South 

 America ; and it is not a little remarkable that two 

 races, adapted for acting a similar part in countries so 

 unlike each other, should both have a hard covering 

 on the upper part of their bodies, though the covering 

 of the armadillos consists of flat plates, and that of 

 the hedgehogs of detached spines. 



The generic characters of the hedgehogs are : the 

 cutting-teeth slender, arid sharp-edged or emarginated ; 

 the canines weak, and shorter than the cutting-teeth, 

 so as scarcely to be distinguishable from the false 



