Vermicelli

“ But still more confusion meets us: the word vermilion which is now used for a red colour of mineral origin, is derived from vermis, a worm, and should therefore also be applied to cochineal. The word pink, one of the most familiar of plant-names, has a curious origin, being simply the German p. 112Pfingst, a corruption of Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day after Easter.
The tendency to make some kind of sense, or at least something familiar, from the unfamiliar, comes out in name service-tree (Pyrus torminalis) . ”

“ Male with the head and hind neck ultramarine-blue, eyelids vermilion; fore part of back and scapulars yellowish-green; rump purplish-red; smaller wing-coverts purplish-blue, secondary coverts green; quills and tail-feathers dusky; lower parts bright vermilion. Female yellowish-green above, greenish-yellow beneath. Young like the female. In the second year, the male with the upper parts olive-green, the lower dull orange, paler behind, head as in the adult; in the third year, with the back mottled with yellow and light green, the secondary coverts green, the rest as in the adult. ”

“ A bird’s wing almost brushed the Bishop’s face. He opened his eyes to one of those common tragedies of garden life, seen every day if we have eyes that see. Some insect of an early butterfly sort had come out of winter chrysalis pale, faint, trembling with the effect of casting off the dead body of its winter shell of skin, and was fanning moist wings dry in the morning sun, when the little feathered songster with a dart past the Bishop’s face, snatched away the dead shell body, while the pale nymph rose in giddy circles in the dazzling light. ”

“ In the case of our "worm," unbeautiful in itself, yet the begetter of so great a beauty, the sense of something outside of nature which shines on us through nature, even as the sun shines in the stained glass of a church window, is more distinctly felt than in the case of any other insect in our country, because of the rarity of such a phenomenon. It is, with us, unique; but many of us know the winged luminous insects of other lands. ”

“ Here, in these lonely solitudes,—heron-haunted, snake-infested,—the hanging moss and orchids search out every dead limb and cover it with an unnatural greenness. Here, great lichens grow and a myriad tropical insects bore and tunnel their way from bark to heart of tree and back again. Here, in the blackness of night, when the air is heavy with hot, swampy odours, and only the occasional squawk of a heron or cry of some animal is heard, a rending, grinding, crashing, breaks suddenly upon the stillness, a distant boom and splash, awakening every creature. ”

“ The last bees have reached their hives, laden with the sweet product of their hard labour. The honeyed flowers, which look to their visits and to the visits of other sun-loving insects for aid in fertilisation, have, so far as possible, covered their tempting cups to avoid the damping or loss of the precious pollen within. Snails and slugs crawl from hidden caves, prepared to work in darkness the evil which fear of feathered warders hinders by day. Except for these workers of ill, these foes of beauty, the garden is apparently going to sleep. ”

“ Insect-fertilizable or Entomophilous flowers are those which are sought by insects, for pollen or for nectar, or for both. Through their visits pollen is conveyed from one flower and from one plant to another. Insects are attracted to such blossoms by their bright colors, or their fragrance, or by the nectar (the material of honey) there provided for them. While supplying their own needs, they carry pollen from anthers to stigmas and from plant to plant, thus bringing about a certain amount of cross fertilization. Willows and some other diœcious flowers are so fertilized, chiefly by bees. ”

“ I should see fine moss, like emerald fur, growing slowly, slowly, upon the backs of those lions;—I should see the sprouting of lichens upon their flanks and upon their shoulders, in specklings of dead-silver, in patches of dead-gold;—I should watch, through years of generations, the gradual sideward sinking of their pedestals under-mined by frost and rain, until at last my lions would lose their balance, and fall, and break their mossy heads off. ”

“ One by one the swarm sought their original haunt, settling on the bramble, and I now noticed that only in occasional instances did the insects seek the flowers, the attraction seeming to be confined to the leaves. I stole up softly for a nearer point of observation, and could now distinctly see the beautiful yellow and black open wings of the swallow-tail softly gliding or gently fluttering as it hung from the edge of a leaf, while it explored its surface with its uncoiled capillary tongue. ”

“ And thus we might proceed through all the orchid genera, each new device, though based upon one of the foregoing plans, affording its new surprise in its special modification in adaptation to its insect sponsor—all these various shapes, folds of petals, positions, colors, the size, length, and thickness of nectary, the relative positions of pollen and stigma, embodying an expression of welcome to the insect with which its life is so marvellously linked. ”

“ Flowers of the garden and the waste have blown, And withered; seeds have fallen upon the soil From bursting cells, and in their graves await Their resurrection. Insects from the pools Have filled the air awhile with humming wings, That now are still forever; painted moths Have wandered the blue sky, and died again ”

“ These aggregations of flowers with their flaunting flags are in general an invitation to all comers; the nectar in the blossoms lies open to every hungry insect, and pollination is effected in a rather promiscuous and messy way; not only flying insects—bees, butterflies, beetles, and flies of many sorts—but also ants and other creatures which creep up the stems{88} from the ground, assemble for the feast, and incidentally transfer from flower to flower pollen which may adhere to their bodies. ”

“ It has no garden to take a walk in; not so much as a tree, or shrub, or patch of grass to refresh the eye, while it swarms with different kinds of vermin, such as weasels, snakes, lizards, and scorpions. ”

“ My vermin are swarming amid the miscellaneous vegetable refuse with which I have furnished the premises. They all move along with tiny steps, dragging their shells, which they carry lifted on a slant; they come halfway out and suddenly pop in again; they tumble over if they merely attempt to scale a sprig of moss, pick themselves up again, forge ahead and cast about at random. ”

“ The larvae of most insects pass through a worm-like stage, whether they are active and adapted to diversified habits, or are inactive from being placed in the midst of proper nutriment, or from being fed by their parents; but in some few cases, as in that of Aphis, if we look to the admirable drawings of the development of this insect, by Professor Huxley, we see hardly any trace of the vermiform stage. ”

“ These insects, merely by a puncture and the deposition of an egg, or drop of fluid, turning Nature from her law, and compelling the Genius of the Oak to construct of living organized oak matter, instead of leaves and twigs, fairy domes and temples, in which their embryo young may lie for a time enshrined. ”

“ By and by it will have strong wings, long, strong legs, a horny body, and very often colors like a rainbow.
But this which you call a “white worm” is the beetle larva after it is born from the egg. Sometimes it has no eyes. It is always very greedy. Beetle larvæ will eat almost anything but metals. They harm wood, trees, fruit, flowers, meal, furs, clothes, by gnawing and eating these things.
The larva of beetles looks like the larva of butterflies. It has no wings. No larva ever has wings.
The change of getting wings must come when the larva has gone into the pupa cradle. ”

“ For, of course, flowers do secure a mate, and they are aided in this enterprise by the most formidable array of helpers, one might almost call them conspirators. The chief of these are insects, thousands of different kinds of which are constant flower visitors. Some of the smaller birds, and even snails, also help flowers to meet their mates. The wind, too, bears pollen through the air to some expectant bride-to-be. And, finally, in the water, by a series of acts the like of which no one could improve for cunning, the cross-fertilization of certain aquatic plants is consummated. ”

“ The flowers of the male plant are produced under water, and as soon as their farina, or dust, is mature; they detach themselves from the plant, and rise to the surface, continue to flourish, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents to the female flowers. In this resembling those tribes of insects, where the males at certain seasons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, Cocchus, Lampyris, Phalæna, Brumata, Lichanella. ”

“ The glow-worm, by the aid of the colour of its sides116 and haunches, sends forth at night a light which resembles that of fire; being resplendent, at one moment, as it expands its wings,117 and then thrown into the shade the instant it has shut them. These insects are never to be seen before the grass of the pastures has come to maturity, nor yet after the hay has been cut. ”

“ A more delightful picture can hardly be imagined, than when the little chicks bustle around the parents, now here, now there, catching large flies, a worm, or a water insect. Swift as an arrow they shoot towards the mother when she has found a morsel for them. Alertly the old ones watch in every direction for possible danger. ”

“ The presence of fragrance and honey in a diœcious flower may be accepted in the abstract as almost conclusive of an insect affinity, as in most flowers of this class, notably the beech, pine, dock, grasses, etc., the wind is the fertilizing agent, and there is absence alike of conspicuous color, fragrance, and nectar—attributes which refer alone to insects, or possibly humming-birds in certain species. ”

“ The Leaf, however, is suspicious at first, having been warned by his grandmother that “even the smallest insect may eat your life out. A worm so little that it can pass through the prick of a needle, even as a rabbit runs through a valley, or a fish swims free up a river, may cut your stem or blight your beauty.” ”

“ For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. ”

“ Another detail attracts our attention: whereas the inside of the house is exquisitely clean, the outside is covered with dirt, bits of earth, chips of rotten wood, little pieces of gravel. Often there are worse things still: hung up or embedded are the dry carcasses of Beetles that favor under-rock shelters; parts of Thousand-legged Worms, bleached by the sun; snail-shells, chosen from among the smallest. ”

“ And so you see the giving of the vermifuge consumed considerable time. After that was through with, she would begin again at the head of the line, and, making each child open its mouth to its fullest extent, she would examine each throat closely, and if any of them had their "palates down," she would catch up a little clump of hair right on top of their heads and wrap it around as tightly as she could with a string, and then, catching hold of this "topknot," she would pull with all her might to bring up the palate. ”

“ Usually this is done by thickly painting on vermilion and red lead mixed with varnish, or brushing on red lead mixed with thick glue, as a base on which to subsequently lay the vermilion. I may point out, however, that blood differs in tint, and that the appearance of torn flesh, fresh blood, and coagulated blood is best got by painting the parts with wax, and tinting, with a little vermilion, some madder brown, or madder lake (a rather expensive colour) , and light red, arranged and blended one with the other as in nature. ”

“ There are green ones on certain plants, and black ones on others, but whatever be their colour, they are living pearls which form garlands round the stalk. The world considers them as vermin, and they scarcely dare to touch them with the point of their fingers. ”

“ In all probability it grew up side by side with the growth of bright-hued flowers. Just as those blossoms which exhibited the greatest tendency to display a brilliant whorl of tinted leaves, in the neighborhood of their stamens and pistils, would best succeed in attracting insects, so, in return, those insects whose eyes were most adapted for distinguishing the pink and yellow blossoms from the green foliage would best succeed in procuring food, and would thus live down their less gifted competitors. ”

“ Then Mr Hamilton Gibson showed me some monster drawings of flowers—Brobdingnagian ones. The flowers opened and closed when you pulled a string, showing their interior structure. Here were bees or other insects, and they flew into the flowers, collected the honey, and, above all, the pollen, and buzzed out again. He explained to me how plant life would perish were it not for certain insects, which bring a new existence to flowers; for without these winged helpers there would be no longer any varieties of flowers or seeds. ”