1 6 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



Of golden splendor, and of face most comely, 

 Parent of morning clouds, leader of day-light. 



Oh ! happy she, blest dawn, the God's eye, bringing 

 Whitest of steeds, and proudest, sleekest, leading. 

 In radiance draped, the ruddy morn is coming, 

 In treasures rich, she tracks the path for mortals. 



Or, here are our botanists, old friends and acquaintances of 

 each fair floweret, who can tell you that all the brilliant glory, far 

 exceeding that of Solomon, all the delicate perfume and the tiny 

 pot of honey, were given to each queen of the meadow, not alone 

 to regale your senses, but to invite and reward yonder bustling bee, 

 whose woolly, dusty back, performs such a service in enabling it to 

 perpetuate its posterity. They can tell you of every plant that can 

 possibly be met with in your rambles, and of all their qualities and 

 uses, edible, medicinal or destructive ; even of that marvel of con" 

 struction and destruction, the pitcher plant, whose treacherous lips 

 entice to death the unwary insect seeking to explore its cool recesses 

 for treasure, but once within those shining portals he can nevermore 

 return, — the slippery sides and downward pomting spears leave him 

 no resource but exhaustion, death, and finally absorption. 



Then here are our friends the conchologists, in from wandering 

 in leisure hours along streamlet, creek and lakeside, with collections 

 of hundreds of varieties of shells from the tmy foraminifera to the 

 great yawning clam, all beautiful in finish and wonderful in con- 

 struction. 



Over there is our veteran ornithologist with his ambitious 

 pupils, who know every feather that cleaves the sky, and can tell you 

 great things even of the pugnacious sparrow. 



And there are the entomologists, chief among them yonder 

 thoughtful man, serious of demeanor, but delightful to know, who 

 spends much of his life among butterflies, moths and beetles ; a 

 perfect arsenal of information in his particular hobby. He can tell 

 you of the fascinations of the studies of insect life, and has won- 

 drous things to say of bees and ants ; of the ant lion who makes his 

 pitfall in the sand and pounces on his stumbling victims, or of a 

 crawling grub, which, arriving at maturity, feels within itself a great 

 change coming, and admonished of a long night of helpless sleep to 

 end in a new life of gaudy splendor. He will tell you that to pre- 

 pare for this marveUous transformation it ascends a lofty tree^ aware 



