90 APRIL 



cock, and the rare Camberwell beauty. One can 

 understand, of course, how, if the stinging difficulty 

 be overcome, the nettle affords store of wholesome 

 food; for, gathered young and tender during this 

 month, it makes a palatable soup for men and 

 women, and provides no sorry substitute for 

 spinach. So, also, the preference of many kinds of 

 caterpillars for a succulent salad of poplar and 

 willow leaves is quite intelligible; and there is a 

 fitness in such delicate fare as violets to nourish the 

 infant forms of such lovely insects as the dark- 

 green and silver-washed fritillaries, and rarest of 

 our wood butterflies the Queen of Spain fritillary. 

 The fragrant lady's bedstraw supports a host of the 

 brightest and choicest lepidoptera ; cress and rapes 

 supply wholesome diet for the whites and orange- 

 tips. Most of the gem-like blues are reared on 

 clover and leguminous plants, though even in this 

 family there is one the holly blue (Lyccena argiolus) 

 with a depraved taste for holly and ivy leaves. 

 But that is mild provender compared with some. 

 The vast genus of Spurges (Euphorbia), spread over 

 the greater part of the globe, contain a milky juice 

 in great abundance and of intense acridity, so pain- 

 fully poisonous that it is difficult to imagine a 



