130 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Fus 



The Frothy Period. 



The aphrophora - lives in froth. In the months of June and 

 July one sees on nearly every tree, and on plants of the most 

 different kinds, a sort of white froth, composed of air bubbles, 

 deposited on the leaves and branches. It is produced by the 

 aphrophora, \yhich lives in it, and only leaves it when it has 

 wings. The animal which lives in this froth is a six-legged 

 grub. If the froth is cleared away from it, it will hurry to 

 certain parts of the stalk of plants, where by dint of its 

 operations on the sap it laboriously creates for itself another 

 covering of froth. If withdrawn from this froth the volume of 

 its body diminishes perceptibly, and the poor grub dies, like a 

 fish taken out of its natural element. There are many beings 

 besides the aphrophora who have their frothy season. The 

 adolescence of the litterateur, the preacher, and the orator is 

 often a period of froth. It should be remembered that this is 

 a mere passing phase of their existence. They grow out of it 

 by the time that their mental wings are strong enough for use. 

 It is unkind to attempt to accelerate the emergence of any one 

 from the froth, for you may unnecessarily destroy a genius who 

 would have raised himself out of it at the proper epoch, and 

 who, until then, will be best left to his bubbles. i. 



Great Effects without Fuss. 



Without storm or noise the winds in their usual course 

 accomplish surprising feats. All expanses of shifting sand, 

 whether maritime or inland, like the deserts of Africa and Asia, 

 are yearly modified by the agency of wind-drift, the wind 

 carrying the dry sand left by the tides forward and landward 

 beyond the reach of the waters ; and where the aerial current 

 blows steadily for some time in one direction, as the trade-winds 

 and monsoons of the tropics, it will carry forward the drifting 

 material in that direction. Hence the gradual entombment of 

 fields, forests, and villages that lie in the course of such progres- 

 sive sand-waves as on the Biscay seaboard of France and on 

 the western verge of Egypt. Results like these arise "from 

 merely the ordinary operations of wind ; its extraordinary opera- 



