Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-06-10

initiate to perfection . leaf that 10 dried
and shriveled up.
: The butterfly needs but little food.
for "a system has been well provided
for through the surplus store that the
caterpillar has laid up. Its chief food
Is the honey hidden within the flowers.
To reach this it has a long and slender
proboscis, which is connected with
small bag in the gullet. Just before
the sucker touches the honey, the bag
contracts and expels all the air out OF
the tube. and then by dilating IL draws
up the nectar. In the same way any
Young reader can suck up water
from q vessel through a glass tube, as
soon as the mouth has exhausted all the
air from the latter.
The life of the butterfly appears TO be
one of glad frolicking in the sunshine,
though il is sometimes as short as two
or three DAYS. As soon as the eggs
have been laid for the birth Of the fu-
ture caterpillars. the life-work is Mt an
end.
Butterflies are to be found pretty
much over the entire globe. They are
met as far north as the frozen island OF
Spitzbergen, on the Alps almost up to
the snow line, and upon the Andes at
the great elevation of eighteen thousand
feet. 1t would not be over fanciful TO
call them the living flowers Of the air.
There are by far the most species OF them
in tropical lands like Brazil. A single
traveller has found twice as many distinct
specimens in that empire as others have
collected in all Europe. The most mag
nificent of all the varieties Is certainly
the bird-winged butterfly. The latter
is distributed over the islands OF the
Malay Archipelago, and reaches IFS per-
lection in the Moluccas. Its body u
golden. the breast crimson. the wings
Of a velvety black and brilliant green,
with breadth of seven inches across.
The finest Of the South American
species have wings of brilliant metal
lic-blue, often seven inches broad. and
which flash SO brightly in the sunlight
az to be visible quarter Of mile dis
tant. These insects like to collect to-
gether, and are occasionally found fly
ing i'm immense flocks, whose numbers
exceed our powers of counting. ID
Mr.. Darwin saw what he calls "a
butterfly shower" when ten miles Of
from the Brazilian coast. Though he
used a telescope, ne declares he could
not see any space in the sky free from
the insects. Mr.. Tennent, another en-
inent naturalist, watched in Ceylon .
vast cloud of white or pale-yellow but
terflies. SO many miles broad and long
that hours, and even days. passed by
before the numberless hosts had COM
pleted their passage.
Poets and ministers have long agreed
in accepting the butterfly rs type or
foreshadowing OF the resurrection life
of humanity. in beauty and perfection
of being. For those who care to carry
out the parallel little closer, the re-
semblance becomes very striking. The
caterpillar, of course, corresponds with
our earthly existence, when the eyes
are chiefly fixed upon the comforts that
concern our eating, dress and home.
Then the chrysalis stands for that mys-
terious interval that begins with death,
when the unclothed spirit of the good
is in the paradise Of bliss, while the
body is Wondering away into dust in
the grave. And the coming forth OF
the butterfly from the earthly shell ex-
plains that wonderful change Of the
resurrection morn, when the spirit is to
be clothed upon with the new body,
formed after the fashion of the Good
Master himself, SO that in all points
His followers may be like unto Him.
COLLEEN D1us f7ynH