104 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Ent 



or leveret, or any other small terrestrial animal, the long wings 

 are closed in an instant, and the kite descends with astonishing 

 velocity upon his surprised and unsuspecting quarry. T. B. 



The Perils of Enjoyment. 



Enjoyment is often attended with deadly peril. We set our 

 heart on obtaining some sweet pleasure; little resistance is offered, 

 and we obtain our desire ; but the price is ruin. We are caught 

 like the winged creature which seeks the sweets of the glaucus 

 birthwort. The whole of the internal surface of the tubular 

 flower of the glaucus birthwort (Aristol glauca) is beset with 

 minute strong spines pointing downwards ; these present no 

 impediment to the animal which may seek for the sweet liquor 

 lodged upon the nectarium at the base of the blossom, nor is 

 there any obstruction provided for its return by means of valves 

 or contractions, the tube remaining open ; but the creature 

 cannot crawl up by reason of the inverted spines ; and to pre- 

 vent its escape by flying up the tube, the flower makes an 

 extraordinary curve, bending up like a horn, so that' any 

 winged creature must be beaten back by striking against the 

 roof of its neck as often as it attempts to mount, and falling 

 back to the bulbous prison at the base of the flower, dies by 

 confinement and starvation. j. 



The Deobstruent Power of Enthusiasm. 



Vapour of a high ^temperature is capable of dissolving silica, 

 and Mr. Darwin alludes to an instance in Terceira (one of the 

 Azores), where steam, issuing from fissures in the trachytic rock, 

 gradually softens and decomposes the crystalline mass till the 

 whole is reduced to a white chalky clay, with which the inha- 

 bitants whitewash their houses. In like manner the high en- 

 thusiasm of a people when it issues forth against petrified con- 

 stitutional monstrosities possesses a power to melt them away. 

 No time-hardened opposition of colossal forces can resist its 

 operations. Its warmth will reduce them, and from the resi- 

 duum will obtain properties for the general benefit. Though 

 the enthusiasm of the people is sometimes designated " mere 



