tliinlv 3-011 can find out for yourselves, and if 30U watch carefully yotl 

 will diseu\er soine very curious lliiii^^s. I want you to put down in 

 your notebooks just how these worms eat, hct'uuse later you may 

 wish to compare their haljits with those of some other worms of which 

 1 will tell you. 



The parents of these little worms of which we have been speaking 

 are very spry, so that you will probably not be able to catch the 

 mother-fly in the act of laying her eggs, but if you could, you would 

 see her use a little saw, \\'hich she carries in a convenient place, with 

 which she cuts small holes in the veins of the leaves, and in these she 

 places her eggs, just as you saw them when looking for the young 

 worms. Now, what would you suggest as her family name? Saw-iiy? 

 Certainly; that is Just what she is called. 



Do you know -what injuries these saw-flies do to our fruits? Ask 

 your father and he will probably tell you that if they are left to them- 

 selves they will soon strip the currant and gooseberry bushes of their 

 leaves. 



So far we have spoken of but one kind of saw-fly, but there are a 

 good many kinds, all more or less injurious to our cultivated plants, 

 although they differ a good deal in their habits. For example, you 

 may have a cherry tree with its bright green leaves Just beginning to 

 do the work which JSTature intended they should, when you sudd,enly 

 discover that something is the matter with them. Something has 

 eaten away part of the leaf covering so as to make it appear spotted. 

 Find out, if you can, what it is that has done this. Ah! There you 

 have him — a sticky, slimy-looking fellow, eating away as contentedly 

 as can be. He looks like a snail, you think. So he does. Do you 

 notice, though, that he eats only the green part of the leaf and leaves 

 the veins? But does this really hurt the tree, you ask. Let us see. 

 I think you must have learned before this that the green portion of 

 the leaf is called chlorophyll, and that without it the tree cannot digest 

 its food, and this di.uHslion is necessary in order that it may grow. 

 Now, if you will watch your cherry tree for a few days you will see 

 what will happen if those fellows are allowed to go on with their work 

 unmolested. The leaves will die, and thus the tree, being deprived of 

 its f-ood, will stop growing. 



Let us see if we cannot find some simple remedy that will rid us of 



I this pest. I wonder if any of you know how insects breathe? You 



know that a dog breathes through his nose or his mouth, but these 



'little creatures breathe through holes jilaced along the sides of their 



bodies. Now, you remember that these inseels were covered with a 



