and the Lauracece — beautiful for fruit, 

 flower, foliage and fragrance. With 

 the rose family alone the range is im- 

 mense, embracing, as it does, not only 

 the rose, but the hawthorn, the mea- 

 dow-sweet, the mountain ash, the 

 strawberry, the cherry, apple and all 

 the lovely orchard trees, while with 

 the other family we find the glossy 

 and shining leaf of the magnolia tribe, 

 and the aromatic odors of sassafras and 

 spice-wood. The butterfly eggs are 

 marvels of color, pale green or white 

 at first, changing to all sorts of irides- 

 cent tints as the life inside matures, 

 and also of form, for they mimic the 

 delicate sea-fashions of urchin and 

 coral, the richness of oriental mosques, 

 and the intricacy of design in Gothic 

 windows. 



Let us fancy the t.^^ of our Troilus 

 fastened — a fairy cradle, indeed — on 

 the leaf of a wild cherry tree that has 

 tossed its sprays of feathery white 

 bloom, and its rustling leaves all June 

 long in sunshine and wind and twink- 

 ling shower beneath a summer sky. 

 When the shell is broken, what a 

 strange thing creeps forth! — well-named 

 a larva or mask, for it is a disguise that 

 has no trace of a winged nature. The 

 lover of the butterfly shrinks with 

 loathing from this hideous creature, 

 dragging itself slowly along in quest of 

 the food which it greedily devours — 

 the fresh, sweet leaves of the tree that 

 has sheltered it! But unless it eats 

 and grows there will be no butterfly, 

 and sometimes the skin is cast off as 

 many as five or six times, even the in- 

 ner lining as well as the outside skin, 

 to give its growth free play. If the 

 caterpillar were large it would be ter- 

 rible, for it protects itself, being soft- 

 skinned and often helpless, by a mim- 

 icry of rage, pawing the ground, lash- 

 ing its head furiously from one side to 

 another, as a lion lashes its tail, rear- 

 ing itself up menacingly in a sphinx- 

 like attitude, grinding its mandibles 

 with a grating sound. Its color is at 

 first usually green like the leaf it feeds 

 on, but it afterwards develops bright 

 hues in some species. The 7'm/?« cat- 

 erpillar is green with a yellow stripe on 

 each side, and row of blue dots, while 

 its under side and feet are reddish. 



These varied colors show little, how- 

 ever, on the tree, for the leaves of 

 fruit-trees, especially, quickly assume 

 a yellow tint, and are streaked and 

 spotted. Caterpillars protect them- 

 selves in many ways; some make a tent 

 of a leaf near their feeding-ground, 

 turning over an edge under which they 

 creep, or weaving the different corners 

 of the leaf closely together with silken 

 threads. Even the petals of a blossom 

 may be secured by a filmy web. If the 

 caterpillar must spend the winter as a 

 caterpillar, it makes of the leaf a win- 

 ter-house, which it covers with wood- 

 colored silk, and weaves the thread se- 

 curely to the skin. These nests resem- 

 ble closely the buds of the tree. 



After the caterpillar stage of hu- 

 miliation and danger, comes the 

 strange period of sleep or seeming 

 death, when the cocoon or chrysalid 

 appears. The name ptipa or babe is 

 also used, from the likeness to an in- 

 fant in swaddling bands. The cater- 

 pillar was always liable to curious fits 

 of drowsiness or stupor; this stage of 

 the pupa is a prolonged stupor, and it 

 prepares for it by rolling off the gar- 

 ment of skin, and leaving it underfoot 

 in the silken shroud or cell. Some- 

 times it sleeps in the earth, sometimes 

 in a rock crevice, sometimes hangs like 

 our Troilus looped up by a thread to a 

 tree. The case has knobs or horns to 

 protect the sleeper when the wind 

 blows it against anything. It is sensi- 

 tive to light, and swings towards or 

 from it, according to need. At last 

 comes the resurrection. From a nar- 

 row slit emerges a crumpled, wrinkled 

 thing. If the struggles are long, dare 

 not aid even by a touch! The butter- 

 fly is of such delicate texture that out- 

 side help means mutilation. Let it 

 alone. Soon are the wmgs smoothed 

 — I saw one hang himself up, and 

 lengthen and lengthen, until he was 

 about twice as long as at first — then he 

 spreads them in flight, a glorious and 

 joyous creature of the sunshine! He 

 likes companions, and quickly will he 

 find himself greeted byajasonor splen- 

 did Ajax, or encounter a flock of his 

 own kind, with whom he may feast by 

 roadside puddle or beds of opening 

 flowers. 



198 



