60 STATES OF INSECTS. 



cular reference to each other, both in the epoch of their 

 appearance and the changes that take place in them. 

 Thus, as Dr. Virey has observed, the caterpillar is si- 

 multaneous with the leaf of the tree or plant on which it 

 feeds, and the butterfly with the flowers of which it im- 

 bibes the nectar a . Swammerdam, I believe, was the first 

 who noticed the analogy between the changes of the insect 

 and the vegetable, and has given a table in which he has 

 contrasted their developments, including other animals 

 that undergo a metamorphosis b : an idea which has been 

 generalized by Bonnet , and adopted and enlarged by 

 Dr. Virey c . A state analogous to that of the larva in 

 the insect begins in the plant when it is disclosed from 

 the seed, or springs from its hybernaculum in the bulb, 

 Sec, or is evolved from the gemma ; integument after in- 

 tegument, often in various forms, as cotyledon, radical, 

 cauline, or floral leaves, expands as the stem rises, all 

 which envelopes incase the true representative of the 

 plant, the fructification, as the various skins do the future 

 butterfly. When these integuments are all expanded, 

 the fructification appears inclosed by the calyx or corolla 

 as the case may be, in which the generative organs are 

 matured for their office — this is the bud, which is clearly 

 analogous to the pupa state of the insect. Next the calyx 

 and corolla expand, the impregnation of the germen takes 

 place, and the seed being ripened, and dispersed by the 

 opening of the seed-vessel or ovary of the plant, the in- 

 dividual dies : thus the imago state of the insect has its 

 representative in the plant. " If we place," says Dr. Virey, 

 « here the egg of the insect, next its caterpillar, a little. 



3 iV. Did. d'Hist. Nat. xx. 348. 



b Bibl. Nat.m. Hill, ii. 138. c cEuvr. v. 283-. 



