XXXII 

 THE JUMPING BEAN 



ONE way of thinking of the six hundred thousand 

 kinds or species of insects those tiny, ubiquitous 

 fellow-creatures of ours which inhabit nearly every corner 

 and cranny of the earth's surface is to associate them 

 with the plants upon which, either for food or protection, 

 the greater number of them are dependent. This makes 

 them appear less overwhelming in their astonishing and, 

 at first sight, meaningless variety, than when one calls 

 them to mind pinned out in long lines in innumerable 

 drawers and cases, or assorted, like with like, in the 

 wonderfully accurate and interminable pictures of them 

 produced by those patient benefactors of mankind the 

 systematic entomologists. Every plant of any size has 

 a number of insects associated with it, living more or 

 less completely on its substance, or making its home in 

 some part of the plant. Some trees are known to have 

 more than a hundred and fifty kinds or species of insects 

 thus dependent on them, those which are vegetarian 

 serving in their turn as food to a variety of carnivorous 

 insects. 



The ways in which insects are associated with plants 

 may be briefly stated. It must be remembered that 

 often, though not always, one particular species of plant, 



and that only, is capable of serving the needs of a given 



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