84 NATURE STUDIES. 



the parasitic horde may not merely be destroyed, but 

 may even contribute in a microscopic way, to human 

 nutrition. 



THE FIRST DAFFODIL. 



AFTER watching it closely for four or five days, I 

 have just found the first daffodil of the season wide 

 open this morning, with a big humble-bee buried 

 deep in its capacious throat, already rifling its little 

 store of nectar, and dusting his body and legs with 

 pollen which he will promptly carry away to fertilise 

 one of its pretty sisters in some neighbouring garden. 

 Though I have watched it like a child, I could not 

 resist the childish temptation of picking it, and I 

 have got it here before me now for dissection, poor 

 thing, with my little pocket-knife, though it does not 

 need much of a magnifying power to see all that need 

 be seen of its structural arrangements. It is only a 

 common wild English daffodil : the " daffy-do wn-dilly 

 who came up to town in a yellow petticoat and a 

 green gown," as the old nursery rhyme has it ; and 

 it has been simply transplanted hither from the 

 meadow beyond the bourne ; but it is as gay and 

 bright a blossom as one could wish to see, for all that, 

 besides being full of genuine scientific interest for 

 those who care to look at it aright. Let me cut it 

 straight down through the middle, so, and then you 

 will understand better what it is driving at. 



