The Hunting Wasps 



shell, are germinating in some old broken- 

 mouthed pipkin. 



Favier, therefore, knows many things; and 

 he knows them more particularly through 

 having eaten them. He knows the virtues 

 of a Badger's back, the toothsome qualities 

 of the leg of a Fox; he is an expert as to the 

 best part of that Eel of the bushes, the 

 Snake; he has browned in oil the Eyed Liz- 

 ard, the ill-famed Rassade of the South; he 

 has thought-out the recipe of a fry of Lo- 

 custs. I am astounded at the impossible 

 stews which he has concocted during his cos- 

 mopolitan career. 



I am no less surprised at his penetrating 

 eye and his memory for things. I have only 

 to describe some plant, which to him is but a 

 nameless weed, devoid of the least interest; 

 and, if it grows in our woods, I feel pretty 

 sure that he will bring it to me and tell me 

 the spot where I can pick it for myself. 

 The botany of the infinitesimal even does not 

 foil his perspicacity. To complete my al- 

 ready-published work on the Sphaeriaceae of 

 Vaucluse, I resume my patient herborizing 

 with the lens during the bad weather, the in- 

 sect's slack time. When the frost hardens 

 the ground, when the rains reduce it to slush, 

 356 



