admirable. The Bedeguar grubs live in their cells through the winter, and, as their domicile is usually on one of the highest branches, it must be exposed to every severity of the weather. But the close non-conducting warm mossy collection of bristles, with which it is surrounded, forms, for the soft tender grubs, a snug protection against the winter's cold; till, through the influence of the warmth of the succeeding summer, they undergo the final change into the winged state, preparatory to which they eat their way with their sharp mandibles through the walls of the little cells, which are then so hard as to be cut with difficulty by a knife.”*

The rightful possessors of this comfortable moss-covered hybernaculum are four-winged flies of no extraordinary beauty ;† but amongst the usurpers, which frequently deprive them in infancy of life and lodging, are some splendid ichneumon parasites,‡ which have been pronounced unrivalled for elegance of form and brilliancy of colour. Their bodies, resplendent with metallic hues,--gold and purple, green and blue, and their wings (also four) with iridescent lustre,-these insect gems, which want nothing but size to dazzle the admiring eye, are beautiful objects for the microscope, and are easily procurable by keeping some of the rose Bedeguars, gathered in autumn or in spring, until about June; when, if placed under a glass, the egress of their occupants, whether legitimate or surreptitious, may be conveniently observed.

*Insect Architecture.

† Vignette.

Vignette.

We must notice yet another common instance, though one perhaps more beautiful than all the preceding, wherein, at the Gall-fly's creative touch, the willow is made to blossom like the rose; so closely to simulate, by extraneous foliage, the floral form and colour, as to deceive the fathers of botany, as well as no doubt many modern observers. One of the former, old Gerarde describes, and gives a figure of the rose willow, under the assured belief that all "its blushing honours," or, as he designates them, all its "gallant shew," could be none other than the tree's natural produce; whereas its mimic roses spring forth in reality at insect instigation, much in the same way as the moss-like tufts of the Bedeguar; only that, instead of spines, the willow shoots into leaflets resembling in colour and arrangement the petals of a rose. The change of hue from green to red has been attributed to an acid in the animal juice infused with the intruded egg.

Besides the Gall-fly, properly so called, there are several other insects which cause by their punctures a variety of vegetable excrescences somewhat resembling those described. Amongst these are the thistle-fly,* gall-gnat,† a few minute beetles, and several sorts of Aphides.

As works of wonder, all the comparatively great effects which arise from these tiny causes are worthy of description, as well as notice; but they are too large and too varied for the little limits of our page. It remains, moreover, to complete our * Tephritis Cardui. † Cecidomyia.

outline sketch of Insect Magicians by one or two of the most plausible conjectures, as to the manner in which their natural miracles are wrought through the prick of a needle, fit only for the fingers of Queen Mab.

The Ovipositor, or egg-inserting piercer, of the mother Gallfly, is, in some instances, conspicuously long; in others, only partially visible, except on pressure, when it appears issuing from a sheath, in form of a small curved needle longer than the insect's body, wherein it is, however, rolled up by a curious internal apparatus. It is supposed, by Mr. Rennie,* that "after the Gall-fly has made a puncture with this instrument, and pushed her egg into the hole, she covers it over with some adhesive gluten; or that the egg itself, as is usual among moths, &c. may be thus coated over. In either of these cases the gluten will prevent the sap that flows through the puncture from being scattered over the leaf, and wasted; and the sap, being thus confined to the space occupied by the eggs, will expand and force outwards the pellicle of gluten that confines it; till, becoming thickened by evaporation and exposure to air, it at length shuts up the puncture, stops the further escape of the sap, and the process is completed." The above explanation is, however, only given as conjectural, and the one generally adopted by French naturalists is, that the gall tubercle is caused by irritation, in the same way as an inflamed tumor in an animal body.

* Insect Architecture, p. 371-3.

We have seen now that Galls, though common things, are things produced in no common way, and things involved still in a certain degree of mystery. On learning this, some of you, our friends, may be led perhaps to avail yourselves of the coming day of oak-apples, to look beneath their surface. If there be one of you accustomed to estimate Nature only by her economic uses,-one who has never thought of galls but as associate with ink, of willows, save as material for baskets, of roses, save as ingredients of a pot-pourri,—what will you think, on finding that the oak, the willow, the briarrose, are, even in their excrescences, the supporters of animated worlds? What can you think but that your own mind must have been limited within a little world indeed?-a world. from which you will be as eager to emerge, as is the Gall-fly from its oak-apple.

And with bithe quivers fans the gathering bese

Else Towards beven the beerus wonder fies.

And larves the mortal wragt in deep siccist."-Axox. 1733.

Torve ladies, and old, and ladies of a certain age, all of you who have propensities for petting, we can recommend to you a pet,—a novel sort of favourite. We will describe his person