A BLACKBEERY BUSH IN AUTUMN. 185 



as to show their numerous yellow stamens, and the 

 nascent berry beneath them — rough, small, and giving 

 little promise of its future excellence. On the same 

 branches are very pale green, sharply-pointed buds, 

 that are yet unopened, while others have just broken 

 the green calyx, so as to show the pinky petals as they 

 lie folded within. Except the way in which the ample 

 gauzy wings of the earwig are folded under its tiny 

 wing-case, I know no natural packing so wonderful as 

 that of a flower while yet in its bud state. Even with 

 the small petals of the blackberry the arrangement of 

 the folds is worthy of attention ; but in large-petaled 

 flowers, which are often enclosed in comparatively 

 small buds, the complicated and yet simple disposition 

 of the folded petal is almost beyocd the power of de- 

 scription — entirely beyond it without the aid of ex- 

 planatory diagrams. 



The leaves are all of the brightest green, with two 

 exceptions. On many of them are the tortuous tracks 

 of the tiny leaf-miner caterpillar, creatures so small 

 [that they pass the whole of their lives between the 

 upper and under surfaces of the leaves, feeding on the 

 soft substance, called parenchyma, that lies between 

 them. Often they light on the toothed edge of the 

 leaf, and whenever they do so they seem unable to quit 

 the edge, though we think they would find more nutri- 

 ment by following the example of many of their fellows, 

 and eating their way boldly into the middle of the leaf. 

 But like the mariners of old, who were always obliged 



