62 Star anE> TOeatber (Eoggtp 



thicket, it is aglow with other mysterious little 

 stars, as lovely, as pure as their sisters in the sky. 

 But these stars of earth, they are living stars, and 

 they are stars of love. The glow-worm that kindles 

 them is a lowly little spouse, who awaits, motionless 

 and patient, the coming of the beloved ; but the 

 fickle one has wings that carry it away, and it 

 responds tardily at times to the signal that bears to 

 it Hymen's sweet message. 



The comparison of the glow-worm with a star is, in 

 one sense, apt, for the light of these little creatures is 

 of a greenish colour, which is not unknown among the 

 stars. 



Was it not Miss Seward, the old-time poetess, who 

 was astonished that poets had overlooked the stellar 

 light of the glow-worm ; though I believe she relates 

 of " Ossian " that green stars are therein mentioned 

 frequently. For my part, I have not found many 

 direct references to such stars in Macpherson's gloomy, 

 weird work. Darwin, I observe, makes no allusion to 

 the stellar light of the lampyridae which he caught at 

 Rio Janeiro. The greater number of the specimens 

 were of lampyris occidentalis, to which family our own 

 glow-worm belongs. He found that lampyris occi- 

 dentalis emitted the most brilliant flashes when irri- 

 tated. On the muddy and wet gravel- walks he found 

 the larvae of this lampyris in great numbers. They 

 resembled in general form the female of the English 

 glow-worm, but possessed only feeble luminous powers. 

 On the slightest touch they feigned death and ceased 

 to shine ; nor did irritation excite any fresh display. 



Neither does Humboldt, so far as I can find in his 



