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If an old plant is dealt with in this way in April, a batch of young ones should be developed and rooted by October. Grafting does not appear to have ever been tried for this plant. When sick, the plant should be carefully washed, and all decayed parts cut away; it may then be planted in very sandy loam, and kept under a bell-glass till rooted.
"I am sorry for it," said Arthur, who stood leaning upon his spade in his own garden; "I am afraid you will be very angry with me." "Why, was it you, Arthur, broke my bell-glass! Oh, how could you do so?" "I was throwing weeds and rubbish over the wall, and by accident a great lump of couch-grass, with stones hanging to the roots, fell upon your bell-glass, and broke it, as you see."
The insects, therefore, are in the exact position which they occupied in the nest. To open a passage, they must do what they would have done without my interference, they must break through the wall situated above their heads. I shelter the whole under a wide bell-glass and wait for the month of May, the period of the deliverance. The results far exceed my anticipations.
Observe all these little bell-glasses which communicate with the air-pump. I shave my patient's head, grease it a little, and fix on the bell-glass, which is exactly shaped to fit the organ in length and breadth. I work the air-pump, and raise the organ by an exhausted receiver. It cannot fail. There is my butler, now; a man who escaped hanging last spring assizes on an undoubted charge of murder.
But I am dropping one of my internal tears for you, with this pleasant smile on my face all the time. The great mystery of God's providence is the permitted crushing out of flowering instincts. Life is maintained by the respiration of oxygen and of sentiments. Then it is that Society places its transparent bell-glass over the young woman who is to be the subject of one of its fatal experiments.
I in my turn explore the outer world; and for ten days the pursuit of a caterpillar torments me till I lose my power of sleep. Then, at last, victory! At the foot of a sunny wall, under the budding rosettes of the panicled centaury, I find a fair supply of the precious Grey Worm or its equivalent. Behold the worm and the Ammophila face to face beneath the bell-glass.
A single delicate touch on the concave surface of the tip soon caused one to curve; and in 2 minutes it formed an open helix. These trials were made under a bell-glass, so that the loops of thread and wire were not agitated by the wind.
In detail, the tragedy develops as follows: I place under a bell-glass a Philanthus and two or three domestic bees. The prisoners climb the glass walls, on the more strongly lighted side; they ascend, descend, and seek to escape; the polished, vertical surface is for them quite easy to walk upon. They presently quiet down, and the brigand begins to notice her surroundings.
Manoeuvres executed underground escaped the eye, as it seemed to me that they must always do. How indeed could I hope that a creature whose art is practised in the darkness of a heap of mould would decide to work in broad daylight? I did not reckon upon it all. Nevertheless, to salve my conscience, I tried bringing the Scolia into contact with her prey under the bell-glass.
But we must not be carried away by these more showy plants to the exclusion of some very curious and interesting little things which I see we are in danger of forgetting. Here, carefully covered by a bell-glass, is a fine specimen of Dionæa muscipula, or Venus's fly-trap. Every reader of natural history is familiar with its economy; but one does not often get a sight of it.
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