952 Marvels of the Universe 
be found in every copse and hedgerow only the botanist knows that it is both curious and 
interesting. 
In Tropical America there grows a climbing plant of this family, to which Adanson gave the 
name of Monstera deliciosa, without explaining the first word ; the second has reference to the 
flavour of its fruit. The plant has large, heart-shaped, leathery leaves, in which respect it 
makes no great departure from others of its tribe; but if you look at the upper leaves you 
will find it rather difficult to say what shape they are. The more central area of the leaf is per- 
forated with round, oval and oblong holes of various sizes, and the margin is cut into irregular 
lobes. Now, such a leaf has been as well and truly fashioned as the still heart-shaped ones below 
it ; and these perforations of the centre and cuttings of the margin are due neither to the attacks 
of insects nor any other ex- 
traneous agency. The upper 
leaves alone, after attaining 
their normal form, have de- 
; veloped these openings in a 
a ; perfectly healthy manner. The 
& ‘ form and arrangement of the 
@“< leaves on the stems of all 
to the necessity for every leaf 
to receive its due share of light 
Se. 
ber and air, in order that it may 
e a ee oe carry out its proper functions 
4 tan for the nourishment and growth 
e of the plant as a whole. The 
. plants appear to have relation 
P.. upper leaves of Monstera, if 
they retained their original 
entirety, would so shut out the 
light from the lower leaves as 
to prevent their efficient work- 
ing; so they begin to develop 
perforations of the centre and 
margin, and these continue to 
- 
& 
‘s 
Photo by] [Fred Enock, F.LS. widen until the leaf would come 
THE SAW OF THE PINE SAW-FLY. under the schoolboy’s definition 
Showing the beautiful and complicated structure of the apparatus by of a net—‘“‘a lot of holes sewn 
which the Fly can bore into the trunks of Pines. 
together.” 
The minute flowers of this plant, like those of our Cuckoo-pint, are arranged round a central 
spike called a spadix, which is protected by a loose outer sheath called a spathe. The flowers 
of our Cuckoo-pint develop into separate red berries ; those of Monstera grow so crowded that the 
fruits become compressed into six-sided forms and the whole assemblage becomes a fleshy, cylindrical 
body, the interior of which, when ripe, is pulpy and edible, with a flavour of pine-apple. Occasion- 
ally a few of these may be seen in the best class of fruit-shops, but their price prevents them 
from becoming well known. 
THE RAT-TAILED MAGGOT 
It is called the Rat-tailed Maggot because the maggot stage is the most interesting part of its life- 
history, but really It, when perfectly developed, is a fly, and the maggot-stage, therefore, forms a 
quite subsidiary part of its existence. This fly, which is known to the naturalist as Eristalis, belongs 
