UNDER GENIAL SKIES 



There are always exceptions to this dominance 

 of the female in the insect world. We cannot cor- 

 ner Nature and keep her cornered. She would not 

 be Nature if we could. With the fireflies, it is the 

 male that dominates; the female is a little soft, 

 wingless worm on the ground, always in the larval 

 state. 



In the plant world, also, the male as a rule is dom- 

 inant. Behold the showy catkins of the chestnuts, 

 the butternuts, the hazelnuts, the willows, and 

 other trees. The stamens of most flowers are 

 numerous and conspicuous. Our Indian corn car- 

 ries its panicle of pollen high above the silken tresses 

 which mother the future ear. 



One day I dug up a nest which was occupied by 

 a spider with her brood of young ones. I took up 

 a large block of earth weighing ten pounds or more, 

 and sank it in a box of earth of its own kind. I 

 kept it in the house under observation for a week, 

 hoping that at some hour of day or night the spider 

 would come out. But she made no sign. My in- 

 genious friend arranged the same mechanical con- 

 trivance over the door which he had used success- 

 fully before. But the latch was never lifted. 

 Madam Spider sulked or bemoaned her fate at 

 the bottom of her den. At the end of a week I 

 broke open the nest and found her alone. She had 

 evidently devoured all her little ones. 



I kept two nests with a spider in each in the 



141 



