Yellow and drarige" 



But ages before Linnaeus published " Species Plantarum " butter- 

 flies had discovered floral relationships. 



Sharp eyes may have noticed how often the leaves on both 

 the spice-bush and the sassafras tree are curled. Have you ever 

 drawn apart the leaf edges and been startled by the large, fat 

 green caterpillar, speckled with blue, whose two great black 

 "eyes " stare up at you as he reposes in his comfortable nest — a 

 cradle which also combines the advantages of a restaurant.^ This 

 is the caterpillar of the common spice-bush swallow-tail butterfly 

 {Papilio troilus), an exquisite, dark, velvety creature with pale 

 greenish-blue markings on its hind wings. (See Dr. Holland's 

 " Butterfly Book," Plate XLI.) The yellow stage of this caterpillar 

 (which William Hamilton Gibson calls the "spice-bush buga- 

 boo") indicates, he says, that "its period of transformation is 

 close at hand. Selecting a suitable situation, it spins a tiny tuft 

 of silk, into which it entangles its hindmost pair of feet, after 

 which it forms a V-shaped loop about the front portion of its 

 body, and hangs thus suspended, soon changing to a chrysalis of 

 a pale wood color. These chrysalides commonly survive the 

 winter, and in the following June the beautiful 'blue swallow- 

 tail ' will emerge, and may be seen suggestively fluttering and 

 poising about the spice and sassafras bushes." After the eggs 

 she lays on them hatch, the caterpillars live upon the leaves. 

 Mrs. Starr Dana says the leaves were used as a substitute for tea 

 during the Rebellion ; and the powdered berries for allspice by 

 housekeepers in Revolutionary days. 



Greater Celandine ; Swallow-wort 



{Chelidonium majus) Poppy family 



Flowers — Lustreless yellow, about >^ in. across, on slender pedi- 

 cels, in a small umbel-like cluster. Sepals 2, soon falling ; 4 

 petals, many yellow stamens, pistil prominent. Stem : Weak, 

 I to 2 ft. high, branching, slightly hairy, containing bright 

 orange acrid juice. Leaves: Thin, 4 to 8 in. long, deeply 

 cleft into 5 (usually) irregular oval lobes, the terminal one 

 largest. Fruit : Smooth, slender, erect pods, i to 2 in. long, 

 tipped with the persistent style. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry waste land, fields, roadsides, gardens, near 

 dwellings. 



Flowering Season — April— September. 



Distribution — Naturalized from Europe in Eastern United States. 



Not this weak invader of our roadsides, whose four yellow 

 petals suggest one of the cross-bearing mustard tribe, but the 

 pert little Lesser Celandine, Pilewort,or Figwort Buttercup {Ficaria 



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