74 A TOUE ROUND MT QABDEN. 



This, besides, has not the same inconveniences as among 

 men; in the first place, love among flowers is not selfish; 

 they are happy in loving and blooming, and are perfectly 

 unacquainted with jealousy, that degrading feeling composed 

 of avarice, pride, and angry love. It is not likewise as in 

 the poor human families called rich, in which one child, who 

 happens to come first or be a favourite, is a disinheritor of the 

 others ; the riches which flowers leave to their children are 

 immense and eternal ; they consist of the earth, the sun, the 

 air, the shower and the dew; there is nothing to dread, there 

 will always be plenty for every one. 



Here passes in its turn an ichneumon, similar in form to 

 that which I saw depositing its eggs in the body of a cater- 

 pillar; only this is much larger. It also will deposit its eggs 

 in the body of another insect. This insect is a worm destined 

 to become a tolerably large beetle. This beetle knows that 

 its little ones have enemies; therefore, it is in a place which 

 appears inaccessible that it takes care to conceal its eggs. 

 It deposits them under the bark of trees. Alas ! useless pre- 

 caution, fruitless cares! There is the ichneumon, prowling 

 around the oak beneath which I recline; it alights ■and searches 

 the trunk of the tree ; it stops. The wimble which it bears 

 at the extremity of its body divides into three parts, of which 

 two form the sheath of the third; it plunges its naked 

 weapon, finer than a hair, into the bark. The task is long 

 and wearisome, but it finishes by succeeding. It remains 

 motionless for some seconds, and slowly withdraws its saw. 

 If I pleased, I could lay hold of it with my fingers ; it is a 

 fortunate thing that no bird surprises it whilst thus engaged. 

 But the wimble is withdrawn and retm-ned to its case. The 

 ichneumon flies away. By an unknown art, by a wonderful 

 instinct, it has been able, through the thick bark of the oak, 

 to ascertain the spot where the beetle had concealed its egg, 

 which is become a worm ; and the ichneumon, in its turn, has 

 deposited its egg in the body of this worm, which will serve 

 it for pasture. 



Butterflies of all colours pass before my eyes, sporting 

 about in the air. I see the Ked Admiral,* which is black, and 

 bears upon its wings bands or stripes of a fiery red. When 



* Vanessa atalania. — Ed. 



