PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. 135 



foliage of the common locust and viscid locust and thorny acacia 

 and wistaria, these being the food plants commonly given by the 

 authorities ; but the descendant of this intellectual larva also in- 

 cludes the delicate wild pea-nut vine, and ground-nut vine, and 

 bush clover, Hedysarum, garden bean, and all the Desmodiums in 

 its order of the Legumes for its bill of fare, for I have discovered 

 the species on all these plants. 



There are many other insects for which the Pea family pos- 

 sesses special attraction. There is the tiny pea -weevil, a repre- 

 sentative of a tribe of beetles whose early existence is spent 

 within the ripening seeds doubtless a common ingredient in our 

 appetizing dish of green peas. I remember once reading of a 

 Baltimore oriole having been shot for " eating peas," the con- 

 tents of the craw afterwards disclosing only such peas as were 

 infested with the weevil. This diminutive insect, indicated in 

 our " random posy," probes the pod shortly after the withering of 

 the blossom, and lays its eggs therein. The young immediately 

 penetrate the peas, and there fulfil their existence, emerging in 

 the following spring as perfect beetles. Our little " wild " rattle. 

 box has a similar tenant, which upon its escape leaves a clean, 

 round hole in the black pods of autumn, these tenanted pods, by 

 some strange consciousness, generally remaining intact, while the 

 perfect specimens have burst and scattered their seed. 



In the same illustration may be seen a singular rolled leaf 

 upon a hazel branch, and concerning which I will quote a page 

 from my notes of years ago: "Those small rolled brown packets 

 upon the hazels again ! Shall I ever solve them precious goods 

 done up in small parcels, but by what insect, and how? This 

 mysterious bundle committed to the hazel has been a poser to me 

 all my life, I never yet having been able to discover the artist at 

 its work for artist it is indeed. I found to-day a number of the 

 prize packages freshly done up, the folded leaf yet green though 

 half severed by the teeth of the insect, and hanging pendent to 

 the stem. A tiny yellow egg had been deposited at the tip of 

 the leaf as shown by analysis of unrolling and the leaf then 

 folded in half at mid-vein, then rolled from tip upward to stem, 



