PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. 147 
It might be imagined that allied plants possessed some essen- 
tial quality in common by which the insect might associate them, 
but such an hypothesis is needless, as the butterfly does not taste 
the plants upon which its eggs are laid, and rarely visits them 
even when in blossom, its roving days being spent among hon- 
eyed flowers quite indiscriminately. 
While the foregoing facts are largely the result of personal 
observation, research only further emphasizes the seeming law 
involved. Whether in the tropics or the arctic regions, from 
Labrador to Patagonia, the butterflies have always pursued this 
wise prerogative, and doubtless in many regions yet unexplored 
by man have even now anticipated the botanists of the future. 
In a preferment of the arctic or glacial environment of my 
subject I have shown unconscious allegiance to the mother-earth 
my feet have trod—our own blossoming moraines. 
Perhaps, also, that inspiriting winter butterfly is somewhat 
responsible for my point of view and the resultant flight of fancy; 
but if any doubts as to the consequent deductions had been pos- 
sible with me, they are now forever set at rest; for here, in the 
middle of January, upon the last day of the completion of my 
writing, I am visited with a sudden and strange vision of that 
same inspiring butterfly. I know not whether it is the same free 
spirit which enraptured my boyhood, or the buoyant sylph which 
hovered above those Alpen snows, but it lent its presence once 
more to me to-day, much to the amazement of several witnesses. 
As I sat in the reference-room of our city library, even as I 
consulted the authorities upon its own ubiquitous existence, it 
perched upon the rail close by, and applauded my efforts with its 
palpitating wings. 
of the season are sometimes so widely dissimilar that, according to Scudder, they 
have been universally classified as distinct species, until their common parentage 
was proved. Mr. Edwards gives three distinct forms of the Zebra swallow- tail 
appearing in successive broods in spring, summer, and autumn. It is not diffi- 
cult to imagine accidental conditions of weather, and resultant effects in habits, 
or natural selection, through which one of these particular types might be perpetu- 
ated as the permanent fixed form. 
