TEGENERIA MEDICINALIS. 



warm. The roots being preserved in this way, the plants 

 will defy the coldest weather they are ever likely to be ex- 

 posed to in the summer. For kidney beans, where they are 

 trained on sticks in the open air, it is necessary in autumn 

 and winter to cleanse the sticks from all loose rind, as the 

 mites take up their winter quarters within it in whole fam- 

 ilies, and if they are not effectually destroyed, proceed from 

 it to the young plants in the ensuing spring, and continue 

 their devastations. 



The Diadem Spider, Epeira diadema, so common in the au- 

 tumn, belongs to Walckenaer's genus Epeira. Its body, when 

 full grown, is nearly as large as a hazel-nut, is of a deep 

 chestnut-brown color, and the abdomen beautifully marked 

 by a longitudinal series of round milk-white spots, crossed by 

 others of a similar appearance, so as to represent, in some 

 degree, the pattern of a small diadem. It is chiefly seen 

 during the autumnal season in gardens, where, in some con- 

 venient spot or shelter, it forms a large, round, close web of 

 yellow silk, in which it deposits its eggs, guarding this web 

 with a secondary one of a looser texture. The young are 

 hatched in the ensuing May, the parent insects dying towards 

 the close of autumn. At the top of the abdomen are placed 

 five papillae or teats, through which the spider draws its 

 thread. The eyes, which are situated on the upper part of 

 the thorax, are eight in number, placed at a small distance 

 from each other. The fangs, with which the animal wounds 

 its prey, are strong, curved, sharp-pointed, and each furnished 

 on the inside near the tip with a small oblong hole or slit, 

 through which is discharged a poisonous fluid into the wound 

 made by the point itself. The feet are of a highly curious 

 structure, the two claws with which each is terminated being 

 furnished on their under side with several parallel processes, 

 resembling the teeth of a comb, and enabling the spider to 

 manage with the utmost facility the working of the threads 

 in its web, &c. 



The History of Spiders by Baron Walckenaer is the best 

 work on the subject that has yet been published. 



CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 



The medicinal species of spider from which cobweb or 

 spider's web is obtained, is the Tegeneria medicinalis of this 



11 



