The Crioceres 



lily to any eye untrained in the niceties of 

 botanical analysis. 



She did more : she browsed, with every 

 appearance of a contented stomach, on a 

 prickly creeper, Smilax aspera, which tangles 

 itself in the hedges with its corkscrew tendrils 

 and produces, in the autumn, graceful clus- 

 ters of small red berries, which are used for 

 Christmas decorations. The fully-developed 

 leaves are too hard for her, too tough; she 

 wants the tender tips of the nascent foliage. 

 When I take this precaution, I can feed her 

 on the intractable vine as readily as on the 

 lily. 



The fact that the smilax is accepted gives 

 me confidence in the prickly butcher's-broom 

 (Ruscus aculeatus), another shrub of sturdy 

 constitution, admitted to the family rejoicings 

 at Christmas because of its handsome green 

 leaves and its red berries, which are like big 

 coral beads. In order not to discourage the 

 consumer with leaves that are too hard, I 

 select some young seedlings, newly sprouted 

 and still bearing the round berry, the nutri- 

 tive gourd, hanging at their base. My pre- 

 cautions lead to nothing: the insect obstinately 

 refuses the butcher's-broom, on which I 

 thought that I might rely after the smilax had 

 been accepted. 



443 



