PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. 



129 



the artful tented leaf and the presence of the butterfly, 

 the gray spotted and spiny caterpillar of the Comma 

 Angle-wing. 



To be sure, it may be said that the nettle is not 

 a particularly difficult plant to distinguish. Indeed, old 

 Culpeper, the herbalist, assures us of 

 the fact that " it may be found even 

 in the darkest night by simply feel- 

 ing for it." But such hap-hazard bot- 

 any is not the necessary resource of 

 our butterfly. The discrimination 

 of a nettle, botanically consid- 

 ered, requires a much deeper 

 insight. How is this insight 

 possessed by the Comma? 

 Let us see. Yonder on the 

 stone wall a clambering 

 hop-vine would seem 

 to afford a tempting 

 sporting -ground for 

 a small brood of red 

 butterflies. On nearer 

 approach they prove to 

 ' ^ be the Comma joined 

 by a few near relatives 

 equally interesting. 

 Here and there our 

 careful search dis- 

 closes a tented leaf 

 precisely similar to 

 those already described, 

 while beneath we may dis- 

 cover the same spiny tenant. 

 Continual search reveals a num- 

 ber of similar spiny caterpillars, though variously variegated, and 

 perhaps a gilded chrysalis or two among the stems and crevices 



