82 
THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
many of its congeners, this spider be predaceous, or if it be, of what its 
prey consists. We know not why the gossamer spiders take such long and 
lofty flights, or how it is that many of their threads become so interwoven 
in the upper regions of the air, as sometimes to fall in large flakes on the 
ground. It is only in fine weather that gossamer is plentiful, and mostly 
in autumn. 
Several species of annual spiders inhabit low trees and bushes. They 
are called annual, because they live only one year : being very small 
when they first appear in June, and becoming full grown late in autumn, 
after which they totally disappear. One of these is a small yellow 
species, which weaves a remarkably complicated web; it may very 
properly be called a labyrinth, and seems intended to prevent any fly or 
other insect that enters ever finding its w r ay out again. The web 
usually consists of two or three platforms parallel to each other, and 
horizontal in position. They are closely woven, and serve both for 
floors and ceilings ; and are united by numerous perpendicular partitions 
and threads crossing between in all directions. At one corner, and 
usually under the covert of a leaf, the insect forms for herself a snug 
weather-proof retreat, in which she reposes, or keeps watch for her prey. 
But the geometrical spiders, which live on hedges and shrubs, are the 
most dexterous and elegant weavers. Their net-like fabrics suspended 
nearly perpendicularly in the air, are most perfectly "adapted for inter¬ 
cepting insects on the wing; and the address with which they choose a 
home for themselves, and a place suitable for commencing their toils, is 
truly astonishing. Their home is either a recess in the bark of a tree, or 
a concave leaf, either above or below the centre of the plane of the web ; 
and to this shelter they retire in rainy weather, or to lay their eggs. 
The web is formed by the spider in some vacant space near her home ; 
and it must be between two distant twigs, or other stationary bodies, 
which are requisite to support her principal lines. Her first manoeuvre is 
to form a line, or bridge of communication, from one support to the 
other; and this she endeavours to do by trying round for some acci¬ 
dental passage. Foiled in this, she runs up to the top of the side she is 
on; and thence discharges from her spinners, and by the assistance of 
her two hind feet, several loose flocky threads, which are blown away by 
the wind; and as soon as she feels that one is attached to some other 
body in the right direction, she runs down it, spinning another line as she 
goes, and fixes both securely. Fixing a third here, she runs up the first, 
and down the side she started from, till she approaches the place near her 
home; and then pulling the last thread tight, thus forms her bridge 
across the space between the side supports. 
