MISCELLANEOUS. 257 



ing itself in a very comfortable hammock, which, when 

 the leaf in the course of nature falls off, swings to and 

 fro like a sailor's cot in a gale of wind ; but it is very 

 secure, for the silken cord is elastic, and not easily 

 detached, and being of the same colour as the stem of the 

 honeysuckle, it is difficult to observe, and so the dreary 

 winter passes away. The spring sun makes the bud, 

 which the caterpillar knows somehow is situated in the 

 axil of the old leaf-stalk, to burst forth and grow; and 

 the same warmth awakes the sleeper. In April and May 

 it feeds, in June it goes into a chrysalis, and in July 

 it emerges as a large and beautiful butterfly ; but what 

 wonderful transformation has it experienced, and what 

 grand lessons has it taught, in those twelve months ! 



Nothing in nature will astonish and delight you more 

 than the study of the various mechanical arrangements 

 by which insects are able to accomplish the great work 

 they have to do; much will be beyond your compre- 

 hension, and you will only really have arrived at the 

 secret of all knowledge when you have discovered that 

 you know nothing, and that you are compelled to believe 

 much that you cannot understand; and this is what is 

 called faith. 



There are six thousand species of those extraordinary 

 flowers, the orchids, according to Lindley, from whom Mr. 

 Darwin quotes ; and the latter tells us and there I can 

 accept his theory that the act of fertilization in that 

 large family is almost invariably left to insects ; and their 

 study will of necessity take you to the study of strnctural 

 botany, and how charming are the lessons belonging 

 to that branch of natural history ! 



When you look again at one of the common but ex- 

 quisitely formed capsules of the Funaria moss, think that 

 it flourishes best wherever wood or straw has been burnt 



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