258 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 
varnish. Superior articles receive as many as five or six coats of varnish, 
and are finally polished. 
The ornamentation of all such articles as come under the head of 
toilet wares, is effected by the ordinary mode of painting with a 
camel's hair pencil, or some fitting substitute ; when imitations of woods 
or marble is intended, the ordinary grainer's tools are used. Many 
patterns are produced upon the various articles by " transfer printing," 
" HOMES WITHOUT HANDS.' 
Notwithstanding the recent and very interesting volume on this sub- 
ject, it is not yet exhausted. Fresh facts may be gathered about what 
has already been done, and result in the contemplation of animal life 
in the highest phases of its intellectual or instinctive development. The 
infinite variety of means by which one end is to be attained is mar- 
vellous. To multiply its kind, and provide a home and shelter for its 
future offspring, is the great idea which pervades all forms of life. This 
is more or less elaborated in different individuals, but in all the same 
object is paramount. Two or three instances may be given here, which 
possess in themselves another interest, of an economic character. 
Trehala. — A singular substance has long been known in the East 
under the name of Trehala or Tricula. It consists of oval cases from 
half to three-quarters of an inch in length, found attached by one side 
to twigs of a species of Syrian Echinops. The external surface is rough 
and irregular, nearly of the colour of Sicilian manna, hard, brittle, and 
with a sweetish taste. These cases are constructed by a little beetle 
Trehala. 
(Larinus subrugosus, Chevr.), of which a figure is given (Fig. 1). "It 
appears that the larva of the Larinus collects a considerable quantity of 
saccharine and amylaceous matter, which it procures from the Echinops, 
and that it constructs its dwelling by disgorging this matter and mould- 
ing it with its rostrum." Each case contains only one individual, and 
when this has assumed its perfect form it emerges from the orifice at 
the upper end. There is much in the history and economy of this little 
