THE JUMPING BEAN 



301 



small moths called Tortricince, and they are named re- 

 spectively Carpocapsa saltitans (the one whose grub or 

 caterpillar inhabits the " jumping bean ") and Carpocapsa 

 pomonana, the codling moth. There are other British 

 species of Carpocapsa, the grubs of which eat into the 

 acorn, the walnut, the chestnut, and the beechnut a dis- 

 tinct kind or species for each. None of these grubs cause 

 the nuts they attack to "jump." 



The "jumping bean " of Mexico 

 is a segment of the triply divided 

 fruit of a large spurge, which is 

 called Sebastiana palmeri. The 

 spurges are known in England as 

 little green-leaved annuals, with 

 yellow-green flowers and a milky 

 juice. Botanists call them the 

 Euphorbiacea, and in that "natural 

 order" are included the boxwood 

 tree and some tropical trees of great 

 value and importance. None other 

 than the Brazilian indiarubber tree, 

 Hevea, of which we hear so much 

 nowadays, its rubber to the value 

 of ; 1 4,000,000 being exported 

 every year from Brazil, is one 

 of them. So also is the Chinese 



candle-tree, which furnishes a tallow-like fat, made into 

 candles in China. Others are the croton oil and the castor 

 oil shrubs, natives of India, and the manihot or tapioca 

 plant. The fruits of Sebastiana (the jumping bean) are very 

 much like those of the croton ; and as there are crotons 

 (though not the one of the purgative oil) in abundance 

 in Mexico, it has taken some time to make sure that the 

 "jumping bean" is not the fruit of a croton, but that of 

 the allied plant Sebastiana. It appears that there is no 



FlG. 54. The moth, Carpo- 

 capsa saltitans, which 

 escapes from the jumping 

 bean or segment of the 

 fruit of the Mexican spurge, 

 Sebastiana palmeri, in 

 which its caterpillar and 

 chrysalis have passed their 

 lives. The crossed lines 

 indicate the natural size of 

 the moth. (Drawn from 

 nature for this work.) 



