104 THE BRAMBLE. 



Reaumur in a tribe called " mineuses," all of which 

 live upon the parenchyma, or pulpy substance found 

 between the cuticles or skins of leaves gradually 

 increasing in size until matured for transformation 

 to the chrysalis, when they eat their way through 

 the leaf, ultimately becoming moths, remarkable for 

 the brilliant metallic lustre of their wings, the fine 

 central line being the rejectments of the creature in 

 the infant stages of its growth. Though several 

 plants afford sustenance to these races, we have 

 none on which this tortuous path is more strongly 

 defined than the leaves of brambles, and the ever- 

 blowing rose.. Notices of such incidents may per- 

 haps be considered as too trifling to record ; but 

 the naturalist, from the habit of observing, sees 

 many things not obvious to all persons : his province 

 is to investigate all the operations of nature, and if 

 he record them truly, he has done his duty ; prolix 

 and dull as his remarks will be to some, yet to an- 

 other they may afford information, or tend to eluci- 

 date a conjecture. The bramble is a sadly repro- 

 bated plant, and I cannot say much in its favour as 

 an independent individual, nor would I introduce 

 it, to incommode by its society a thriving mound 

 of white-thorn or of crab : but it generally intro- 

 duces itself, and will flourish greatly, where other 

 and better fences languish, and then by intertwining 

 its long, flexile runners with the weakly products of 

 the hedge-row, will compose a guard, where without 

 it we could with difficulty have raised one. It will 

 intrude, however, into many places where it is not 



