The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-04-15
BUTTERFLY EGGS.
Their Marvellous Beauty as shown by
&stEs*$t* :&a@%E tho Microscona ~ ft ,%s@4#$%Ls

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Their Marvellous Beauty a. shown By
tho Microscope. s
The traveller in the far East, passing
through stone doorways, scrolled and
carved with Arabesque fretwork, en-
ters the eastern quarter of old Cairo.
The streets are dingy and narrow, but
here rise the wonderful domes Of the
famous mosques Tombs Of the
Mamelukes exquisite in all grace and
fantasy of shape and color. The fret
ted sic IS, fine and delicate lacework
= Of stone, the marvellous and shining
play of light on beautiful tints, seem
like a very dream Of art. But enter
the woods that stretch all about us, and
use the microscope that enlarges our
vision, and 10, most wonderful thing
has come to pass! Winged beings, far
more beautiful than the genii of the
Arabian Nights" have been here, and
ON the under side of common leaf,
in size no larger than a pins head. are
structures that fairly rival the mosques
OF Cairo in wealth Of decoration and
lovel1ness of color-the butterfly eggs
Ihey are, many Of them, dome-shaped
IKE the mosques, and covered with a
rich network, so filmy that it glitters
in the sun like diamond dew, but
each OF the lines in a rib, buttressing
the whole structure Other eggs are
shaped like tiaras or turbans, and 9TH
ers still are like sea-urchins. Some are
shaped like pyramids, and all lead up
IN their decorations to minute rosette
at the top, sometimes deeply indented,
through whose openings life is received
in the egg. The patterns are often as
regular as any Circular rose-window
OF Gothic cathedral" and the colors
OF the egg, beginning with a pale-green
the safest of all colors in the green
wood-or white, like many tree-blos-
SONS, change afterwards, as the dwell
er inside develops, into all kinds OF
brilliant and shining hues, from SAL
mon to orange. These eggs are some
times found single, sometimes in reg
ular rows. one on top CT the other, or
strung together like a necklace of
beads, or .girdling twig like fairy
ring" There are insects-not butter
hles-that lay eggs in almost incredible
numbers, say trillion in a season!
These are soft and perishable, and .of
short life. Where an insects eggs
have to stand the winters cold they are
usually covered or packed in kind OF
cement. If you look at these mere
specs through microscope you will
see exquisite shells, clustered like gems
or rolled in tubes, or convoluteds IN
|sspirals and circles. Many eggs are
doubly protected because they are so
fragile, and are placed in still another
shelter, as the eggs of the birds, pale
blue, or speckled, or pearly white, in
close woven nests, or the eggs of GER
tain spiders in silky bells of golden
yellow or purest white hung among
the blossoms. Yet it is more common
to find insect eggs bare and exposed to
view. One day I saw what had SEEM
ed dust grow under microscope into
crystal eggs, on which insect forms ap-
peared to be sharply edged as seen
through the transparent case. Then
out skipped some lively, black-eyed
voolfolk, independent and alert
ready for meal. They seemed fully
grown at birth.-E. F. M.