United States or Caribbean Netherlands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A low, prostrate, spreading plant. Joints short, oval, flattened, thicker than in O. missouriensis, 3 in. long by about 2 in. broad. Spine-cushions ¾ in. apart; tufts very small, with, occasionally, a long spine. Leaves fleshy, very small. Flowers 2 in. across, pale sulphur-yellow. Fruits nearly smooth, 1½ in. long, brown when ripe, with a strong disagreeable odour.
Among these the sulphur-yellow varieties should be considered in the first place. In respect to the great questions of heredity, the stocks offer many points of interest. Some of these features I will now try to describe, in order to show what still remains to be done, and in what manner the stocks may clear the way for the study of the ever-sporting varieties.
Amongst the insects was the silk-spider, a large arachnid of sulphur-yellow tint, with three black transverse bars. It weaves no web, but spins a thread of the strongest texture and the richest golden hue.
Stony hills, stony paths between leafless lilac hedges, stony outlines of crest, fringed with thin rosy bare trees; here and there a few bright green pines; for the rest, olives and sulphur-yellow sere vines among them; the wide valley all a pale blue wash, and Monte Morello opposite wrapped in mists.
The branches become cylindrical and woody with age. Flowers 2 in. to 4 in. in diameter, bright sulphur-yellow, with a reddish tint in the centre; in form they are like a shallow cup, the numerous stamens occupying the middle. They are produced in great abundance on the margins of the youngest joints, as many as fifty open flowers having been counted on a single specimen at one time.
The spines are ½ in. long, slightly recurved, flattened, and pale brown. Flowers large, clustered on the top of the stem, about half a dozen opening together; width 2 in.; petals numerous, narrow, toothed at the tips, spreading; colour a deep sulphur-yellow, anthers orange. Native of Oaxaca, Mexico. Flowering season, July. Introduced 1840.
The breeze whispered in the tree-tops. A sulphur-yellow bird, of French extraction, perched in a flowering bush, insistently demanded: "Qu'est-ce qu'il dit? Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?" What's he say? WHAT'S he say? over and over again, becoming quite wrathful because neither he nor any one else offered the slightest reply or explanation. The girl sympathized with the bird.
Among the butterflies, Melitæa Ismeria, in the south, and M. Harrisii, in the north, are sometimes seen. A second brood of Colias Philodice, the common sulphur-yellow butterfly, appears, and Pieris oleracea visits turnip-patches. It lays its eggs in June on the leaves, and the full-grown, dark-green, hairy larva may be found in August.
A great variety of other beautiful and curious insects adorned these pleasant woods. Others were seen only in the sunshine in open places. As the waters retreated from the beach, vast numbers of sulphur-yellow and orange coloured butterflies congregated on the moist sand. The greater portion of them belonged to the genus Callidryas.
The most abundant, next to the very common sulphur-yellow and orange-coloured kinds, were about a dozen species of Eunica, which are of large size, and are conspicuous from their liveries of glossy dark-blue and purple. A superbly-adorned creature, the Callithea Markii, having wings of a thick texture, coloured sapphire-blue and orange, was only an occasional visitor.
Word Of The Day