140 Hillside. 



We may obtain a clue to the manner in which these silver 

 spots have been developed from the relatives of this butterfly. 

 Very many of these have spots somewhat similar in shape 

 and position to those we see here, but in some species they 

 are pale yellow, in others white, whilst in many the spots 

 are more or less of this metallic character. Is there any con- 

 nection between the three colours? Yes, it would appear 

 from what we know that one is derived from the other ; 

 probably the yellow gives rise to white, and this in turn to 

 the metallic silvery white. In a veiy near relation, the High 

 Brown Fritillary (Argynnis adippe), we find specimens 

 which show every possible gradation of size and development, 

 as regards the spots, from entire absence of silver when the 

 spots are pale yellow or whitish, until the spots unite to form 

 silvery streaks. Here, then, the transition is very evident, 

 and when we turn to those species in which the silver mark- 

 ings are now so fixed and constant, there can be but little 

 doubt in our minds that the development has been a result 

 of natural selection, and is of the greatest possible service to 

 the insect. The insect before us closes its wings. How 

 inconspicuous it at once becomes, for, as it clings closely to 

 a thistle head, the shiny spots resemble very distinctly the 

 shiny bracts around the capitulum on which the sun is 

 shining. 



A cornfield stretches to our right, a hop garden to the left. 

 The bright scarlet poppies in the field are evidence of not the 

 most careful farming, and here, at the edge of the field, is the 

 beautiful blue cornflower, which, in spite of the dislike of the 

 reaper, is an almost universal favourite. 'Tis of it the poet 

 sings 



