478 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



the present plant, and nip the growth of every bud which gave 

 promise for the future. 



Every one knows the peculiarly-offensive caterpillars which 

 eat the cabbages, and which are the offspring of the common 

 large white butterfly. In the spring, the butterflies may be seen 

 flitting about the gardens, settling on the cabbages for a few 

 moments, and then flying off again. They look very pretty, 

 harmless creatures, but, in fact, they are doing all the harm that 

 lies in their power. Forty or fifty eggs are thus laid on a plant, 

 and if only one quarter of the number are hatched, they are 

 quite capable of marring every leaf. In process of time, they 

 burst from the egg-shell, and commence their business of eating, 

 which is carried on without cessation throughout the whole 

 time of the larval existence, with a few short intervals, while 

 they change their skins. 



"When they are full grown, they crawl away from the plant to 

 some retired spot, and there suspend themselves, preparatory to 

 changing into the pupal conditioa A few of them succeed in 

 this task, but the greater number never achieve the feat, having 

 been the unwilling nourishers of the ichneumon flies. Just 

 before the larva is about to pass into the pupal state, a number 

 of whitish grubs burst from its sides, and each immediately sets 

 to work at spinning a little yellow, oval cocoon. The walls of 

 the cocoon are hard and smooth, especially in the interior ; but 

 the outside is covered with loose floss-silk, which serves to bind 

 all the cocoons together. Generally, they are veiy loosely con- 

 nected; but a group of these little objects is now before me, 

 where the cocoons are formed into a flattish oval mass, about the 

 size and shape of a scarlet-runner bean, split longitudinally, and 

 are bound so tightly together, that their shape can barely be 

 distinguished through the enveloping threads. 



As is the case with the cells of the Burnet ichneumon, each 

 cell is furnished with a little circular door, which exactly re- 

 sembles in shape and dimensions the circular pieces of paper 

 that are punched out of the edges of postage-stamps. On the 

 average, about sixty or seventy ichneumon flies are produced 

 from a single cabbage caterpillar. 



The groups of yellow cells are very plentiful towards the 

 middle of summer and the beginning of autumn, and may be 

 found on walls, palings, the trunks of trees, in outhouses, and, in 



