The Life of the Weevil 
Finally, in September, the capsules of the iris 
turn brown and the three valves become 
unfastened; the house threatens to fall to 
pieces. Before it becomes untenable, the 
last occupants hasten to clear out, each by its 
round window. They will spend the winter 
in the neighbourhood, under some kind of 
shelter; then, when spring returns and the 
iris is yellow with flowers, the colonizing of 
the capsules will begin all over again. 
The flora of my district, not far from the 
spots frequented by our insect, in addition 
to the yellow iris comprises three other 
species. On the neighbouring hills, among 
the rock-roses and the rosemaries, the dwarf 
iris abounds (J. chame@iris, BERTOL.), with 
flowers of varying colour: they are sometimes 
purple, sometimes yellow or white and some- 
times attired in a mixture of the three hues. 
The plant is barely a hand’s-breadth in 
height, but its flowers are quite as large as 
those of the other species. 
On the same hills, at points where the 
rains have left a little moisture, the spurious 
iris (J. spuria) forms a glorious carpet. 
It is tall, slender-leaved and decked with 
flowers of rare beauty. Lastly, near the 
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