PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. 



I 49 



beyond the limits of prudence, and thus defeating capture, or even 

 perfect identification. 



Who shall question that through the ages, as now, this mount- 

 ain sprite has been true to the companion plants upon which its 

 broods are found, even as it is still true in its mimetic wings to 

 the everlasting rocks among which it hibernates ? 



Thus, whether in the tropics or beneath the glacial drift, the 

 testimonies of the rocks abide, disclosing the prehistoric leaf side 

 by side with the feathery intaglio, telling not of the " idle rover " 

 and " Epicurean of June," but of divine emissaries, sponsors to 

 their companion blossoms through the prescribed period of their 

 being, and myriads of whose species now extinct were linked 

 through the ages, even unto the present, in the faithful bond of 

 the butterflies' flight. 



