Do you see, on the brink of the pond, those dried-up bodies? They are those of your aquatic insects, the mortal remains of Libellulites; they have rent open their vest, as you would do a garment which had become too narrow; the rent is very conspicuous along the back; and through the fissure issue the winged and aërial resuscitated Dragon-flies, summoned to live in a world differing so widely from their former one! Under the tongues were folded up the wings, and the mask that puzzled you so greatly is split open on the level of the sutures, so as to represent a ⟙, wanting only a handle to reproduce one of those hieroglyphics (☥) which are found so frequently on the Egyptian monuments, and which, according to some Egyptologists, signify _eternal life_. And here, my friend and companion, we may take leave of "The great Dragon-fly with gauzy wings." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 40: The best means of ascertaining the coexistence of an ascending and descending sap have been indicated in "The Circle of the Year," pp. 163-8.] [Footnote 41: See the _Botanische Zeitung_ ("Botanical Gazette") for the years 1853, 1856, 1859, and 1861.] [Footnote 42: Boehm, "Sur la Cause de l'Ascension de la Séve," Mémoire communiqué à l'Académie des Sciences de Vienne, juillet 1863.] [Footnote 43: Chaucer.] [Footnote 44: Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," xxvi. 5.] [Footnote 45: See "The Circle of the Year."] [Footnote 46: Chomel, "Histoire des Plantes Usuelles," ii. 282.] [Footnote 47: Tournefort, "Histoire des Plantes," i. 103.] [Footnote 48: Garidel, "Histoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs d'Aix," p. 56.] [Footnote 49: "Pied," that is, vari-coloured, motley-coated.] [Footnote 50: See also Shelley's "Sensitive Plant," &c.] [Footnote 51: This is common enough in Germany and France, especially in the vineyards, but very rare in England.] [Footnote 52: So we say, "fretted roof."] [Footnote 53: When the spike bears numerous flowers, surrounded by a spathe, or sheathing bract, it is called a spadix.] [Footnote 54: Bosc, a distinguished naturalist, died in 1828, aged 69. In the ministry of Roland, he accepted the delicate post of administrator of prisons; was proscribed after the terrible events of May 31, 1793; and lay concealed, along with Laréveillière-Lépaux, for several weeks in the forest of Montmorency.] [Footnote 55: The seeds of the latter are used in the East, where they are more pungent than in our cold climates, instead of pepper. "They are thought to be the cummin alluded to in Scripture, where our Saviour reproved the Pharisees for their singularity in minor things, and their neglect of important duties."] [Footnote 56: That is, the Creative Power which, in common parlance, we choose to call Nature.] BOOK III. SUMMER.