If the stalk be uneven, or if several Cicadæ have been working one after the other at the same spot, the distribution of the punctures becomes confused and the eye is apt to wander among them, unable to perceive either the order in which they were made or the work of each individual. One characteristic is never missing, that is the slanting direction of the woody strip ploughed up, which shows that the Cicada always works in an upright position and drives her implement downwards into the twig, in a longitudinal direction. If the stalk be smooth and even and also of a suitable length, the punctures are nearly equidistant and are not far from being in a straight line. Their number varies: it is small when the mother is disturbed in her operation and goes off to continue her laying elsewhere; it amounts to thirty or forty when the line of dots represents the total amount of eggs laid. The actual length of the row for the same number of thrusts likewise varies. A few examples will enlighten us in this respect: a row of thirty measures 28 centimetres [19] on the toad-flax, 30 [20] on the gum-succory and only 12 [21] on the asphodel. Do not imagine that these variations in length have to do with the nature of the support: there are plenty of instances that prove the contrary; and the asphodel, which in one case shows us the punctures that are closest together, will in other cases show us those which are farthest removed. The distance between the dots depends on circumstances which cannot be explained, but especially on the caprice of the mother, who concentrates her laying more at one spot and less at another according to her fancy. I have found the average measurement between one hole and the next to be 8 to 10 millimetres. [22] Each of these abrasions is the entrance to a slanting cell, usually bored in the pithy portion of the stalk. This entrance is not closed, save by the bunch of ligneous fibres which are parted at the time of the laying but which come together again when the double saw of the ovipositor is withdrawn. At most, in certain cases, but not always, you see gleaming through the threads of this barricade a tiny glistening speck, looking like a glaze of dried albumen. This can be only an insignificant trace of some albuminous secretion which accompanies the eggs or else facilitates the play of the double boring-file. Just under the prick lies the cell, a very narrow passage which occupies almost the entire distance between its pin-hole and that of the preceding cell. Sometimes even there is no partition separating the two; the upper floor runs into the lower; and the eggs, though inserted through several entrances, are arranged in an uninterrupted row. Usually, however, the cells are distinct.