Country rambles in England : $b or, Journal of a naturalistKnapp, J. L. (John Leonard)
History
Country rambles in England : $b or, Journal of a naturalist
Knapp, J. L. (John Leonard)
Natural history -- England; Natural history -- Outdoor books
The reader is probably aware that while many minerals and a certain
number of animal substances are employed in coloring, the largest
portion of our dyes are borrowed from the vegetable kingdom.
NOTE M.
SULPHUR, OR BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY, (_Gonepteryx Rhamni_,) p. 74.
“This is the Brimstone Butterfly, which, gaily painted,
“Soon
Explores the tepid noon,
And fondly trusts its tender dyes
To feeble suns and flattering skies.”
“It has been supposed by some that this early visitant, (also a late
one,) is, like the above, a winter survivor; but from the trim of his
yellow robes, usually so fresh and glossy, it would seem more likely
that, instead of being laid up—not in lavender, but perhaps in ivy—they
are of the newest spring fashion. Be this as it may, he is the very
pink, or, as he has been more properly considered, the very primrose of
Papillons, sometimes to be seen like a living shadow of the primrose’s
self, fluttering beside it in the sunny hedge-row, or the sheltered
copse. We may know him by the cut of his bright, sulphur-colored
pinions—each, instead of being rounded, ending in a smooth tail-like
angle.
“Of all the wings of the butterflies, these bear perhaps the closest
similitude to floral productions, and on each, as if to perfect the
resemblance of the delicate, flower-like coloring, is a reddish spot, an
exact copy of that often produced by decay or accident on the surface of
a yellow petal. In the beautiful raised bearing of their reverse, the
pinions of the “Brimstone” are no less correspondent with the same; but
those of the female, which, instead of yellow, are of a greenish white,
resemble perhaps yet more nearly, the leaf of a poplar on its under
side. The dye of the antennæ—that purplish pink so frequent upon tender
leaf and flower-stems—also the clothing of the body, a soft satin down
like that by which stalks and seed pods are so often covered, are all
alike accordant with the floral character of this most elegant flutterer
of the spring. This pretty butterfly comes of a pretty caterpillar, with
a smooth green coat, dotted or shagreened with black, and marked by a
whitish line along the back and sides. It is said to feed usually on the
leaves of the hawthorn and alder.”—_Acheta Domestica._
NOTE N.
FURZE, (_Ulex Europæus_,) p. 77.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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