464 



Marvels of the Universe 



and reaches the other side of the stalk towards the end of that season — although this \'anes in 

 different plants — acts like shutting the gates of the harbour against the incoming tide. In other 

 words, it deprives the leaf and stalk of its life-giving sap. Nourishment being thus cut off, 

 the leaf and stalk soon commence to shrink like a piece of orange-peel dried in the sun (see 

 the left stalk in the photograph on page 462, which is shrinking), and this act of shrinking 

 slowl}? increases, eventually loosening the attachment of the ^stalk at its union with the stem, 

 so that the first puff of the autumn wnds completes its severance and the leaf falls to the ground. 



It should be noticed, 



however, that this cork 



^ layer has another function, 



for it also seals effectually 

 V the point of severance, 



so that the plant, after 

 \ , , _ . the fall of its leaf, shall 



a \ '*f1Vlij\PtS^ not spring a leak in this 



situation. 



H 



THE DEVIL'S 



C O A C H - H O R S E 



BEETLE 



HY JOHN J. W..\RD, F.E.S. 



He had just come from 

 under a heap of stones 

 and was travelling at a 

 rapid pace along the dusty 

 road, when I approached. 

 I do not think that he 

 heard me coming, but 

 probably the vibration 

 from my footstep warned 

 him of my presence, and, 

 being a warrior bold who 

 knew no fear, he instantly 

 halted. He set his legs 

 wide apart and grasped 

 theT^ground well with his feet, while his jointed feelers quivered excitedly for a moment, and then 

 became still — as shown on page 466. 



Now a Devil's Coach-horse Beetle that is not prepared to meet a foe and fight until death, if 

 need be, is no credit to his race. This fellow was no coward, he evidently had no intention of running 

 away ; indeed, his attitude seemed to distinctly invite a quarrel. 



While he was awaiting events, there was ample opportunity for -^-iewing this gentleman of the 

 road, and it did not take long to decide that he was undoubtedly the ugliest insect that one could 

 expect to meet on an English roadside. He looked somewhat like a large and exaggerated earwig 

 without tail-pincers, and wdth a big head bearing a pair of cruel-looking eyes. His colour, too, 

 helped his hideousness, for, quite unlike. I think, any other animal in the British fauna, he was 

 a funereal, dead black from head to tail. 



I pushed the toe of my boot towards his tail-end. That was more than his irritable and aggressive 



/'/»)/« ;.»] 



The f. 



[A'. ./. .V'"", I'.ll.M.: 



\VH^ A LEAF 



oremosl 



ells of ihe 



gro^vth of corU are 

 they are "blunt-ended 



FALLS. 



here magnified to show 



