CHAPTER XIV: 
THE IRIS-WEEVIL 
pe TS, with their fruits, have been 
and still are the main sustenance of man- 
kind. The ancient Paradise of which the 
eastern legends tell us had no other food- 
resources. It was a delicious garden with 
cool rivulets and fruits of every kind, includ- 
ing the apple that was to be so fatal to us. 
On the other hand, from a very early period, 
our ills sought to obtain relief by the virtues 
of simples, virtues that were sometimes real 
and sometimes, indeed most frequently, ima- 
ginary. Our knowledge of plants is thus as 
old as our infirmities and our need of food. 
Our knowledge of insects, on the contrary, 
is quite recent. The ancients knew nothing 
of the lesser animals, did not even deign to 
glance at them. This disdain is by no means 
extinct. We are vaguely familiar with the 
work of the Bee and the Silk-worm; we have 
heard people speak of the industry of the 
292 
