HABITS OF INSECTS EXPLAINED.

Why are insects so called?

Because they have a separation in the middle of their bodies, whereby they are cut (insectus, cut or notched, Lat.) into two parts, joined by a small ligature, as in the common house-fly.

Why is the life of insects the briefest of all

existence?

Because the males rarely survive the inclemency of the first winter, and the females die after having deposited their

eggs.

Why may the ephemeral nature of many tribes of insects be considered rather apparent than real?

Because the wonderful metamorphoses to which they are subjected, conceal their identity from the eye of the uninitiated, and greatly interfere with a continuous tracing of the same individual, from the egg to the perfect form. For examplemany aquatic flies, such as the Ephemeræ and others, whose declared and more obvious existence does not exceed a few hours, have, previous to their assuming the winged state, spent months or even years in the banks of rivers, and beneath the surface of the stream.

Why is the first Linnæan order of insects called Coleoptera?

Because they have wings in sheaths: (koleos, a sheath-pteron, a wing :) as the common black-beetle :-4,087 species.

Why is the second order called Hemiptera ? | Because they have half of one wing overlaid by the other: (hemisu, half-pteron, a wing;) as the common cockroach:1,427 species.

Why is the third order called Lepidoptera ?

Because they have wings covered with very fine scales: lepis, a scale—pteron, a wing;) as the butterfly:-2,570 species. Why is the fourth order called Neuroptera ? Because they have reticulated or nerved wings: (neuron, a nerve-pteron, a wing ;) as the dragon-fly :-174 species.

Why is the fifth order called Hymenoptera ? Because they have membraneous wings: (hymen, a film-pteron, a wing;) as the bee:-1,265 species.

Why is the sixth order called Diptera ?
Because they are two-winged; (dis,

twice pteron, a wing;) as the common gnat :- -692 species.

Why is the seventh order called Aptera?

Because they have no wings: (a, privative-pteron, a wing;) as the spider and the centipede :-679 species.

About thirty years ago, the recorded number of insects amounted to about 11,000; but a great additional number has since been discovered and described, Humbolt says 44,000.

Why are insects so serviceable in the general economy of nature?

Because some destroy numerous kinds of weed in the bud, or extirpate them when full grown. Others feed on carrion, live in dung, &c., and thus destroy, disperse, and change noxious animal subinfection of the air; and on the other, stances; on the one hand, obviating the promoting the fertilization of the earth.

It is in this way, for instance, that flies

are so serviceable in warm climates. So

again, innumerable insects effect the impregnation of plants in a very remarkable

manner.

Why are insects important in the arts?

Because of the ready adaptation of their labours to many of the conveniences of life. Thus, mead is prepared in many parts of Europe from the honey of bees; silk is employed for clothing: several insects, as cochineal, afford excellent dyes. Galls are employed for ink; wax, for lights, and other purposes. Lac, employed to make varnish, sealing-wax, &c., is produced by a certain Indian species of coccus. As medicines, we have Spanish flies, ants; and, adds Blumenbach, the oil-beetle, recommended for hydrophobia, and many beetles for relieving tooth-ache.

Why have insects antennæ or feelers?

rally distributed over the body, and the Because the organ of touch is not geneantennæ are considered as appropriated to this sense. These organs are two or more in number, and are present in all the crustacea and insects, but wanting in the arachnidæ, or spider genus. They are situated on the head, usually between the eyes and the mouth. They consist of a number of joints, in general capable, by their flexibility, of examining the surface of a body.-Fleming.

ORIGINS AND INVENTIONS.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME MUSLIN.-The city of Mosul, formerly the capital of Mesopotamia, stands upon the right or western bank of the Tigris, opposite to the site of ancient Nineveh. "All those cloths of gold and silk which we, the Venetians (says Marco Polo), call muslins, are of the manufacture of Mosul." It is not improbable that the city of Mosul, being at that time one of the greatest entrepots of eastern commerce. may have given the appellation to various productions of the loom conveyed from thence to the Mediterranean.

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YANKEE. The current American term "Yankee," was a cant or favourite word with one Jonathan Hastings, a settler at Cambridge, North America, about the year 1713. The inventor used it to express excellency. For instance, a"yankee good horse,' or yankee cider," meant an excellent horse, and excellent cider. The students of a neighbouring college were accustomed to hire horses of Jonathan; their intercourse with him, and his use of the word upon all occasions, led them to adopt it, and they gave him the name of "Yankee Jonathan. It was dispersed by the collegians throughout New England, until it became a settled term of reproach to all New Englanders, and eventually to all North Americans.

POOR-MAN-OF-MUTTON-Is a term applied to the remains of a shoulder of mutton, which, after it has done its regular duty as a roast at dinner, makes its appearance as a broiled bone at supper, or upon the next day. The late Earl of B., popularly known by the name of Old Rag, being indisposed in a hotel in London, the landlord came to enumerate the good things he had in his larder, to prevail on his guest to eat something. The earl at length, starting suddenly from his couch, and throwing back a tartan night-gown which had covered his singularly grim and ghastly face, replied to his host's courtesy, "Landlord, I think I could eat a morsel of a poor-man." Boniface, surprised alike at the extreme ugliness of Lord B.'s countenance, and the nature of the proposal, retreated from the room, and tumbled down stairs precipitately; having no doubt that this barbaric chief, when at home, was in the habit of eating a joint of a tenant or vassal when his appetite was dainty.-Jamieson's Dict.

FLOWERS AND FRUITS.-Sir Anthony Ashley, of Wimbourne, St. Giles, Dorsetshire, first planted cabbages in England, and on his monument a cabbage appears at his feet. To Sir Walter Raleigh we owe the most useful of all vegetables -the potatoe; and to Sir Richard Weston, the introduction of clover-grass from Flanders, 1645. Cardinal Pole planted figs at Lambeth in the time of Henry VIII., which are said to be still remaining there. The learned Linacre first brought over, on his return from the sunny regions of Italy, the queen of flowers, the damask rose. The cherry orchards of Kent owe their existence to a gardener of the bluff nonarch, and in the same reign the currant-bushes were transplanted from Zante. In the early part of the seventeenth century, the elder Tradescant ventured on board a privateer, armed against Morocco, for the sole purpose of stealing apricots into this country; and pretty much at the same time the mulberry-tree

We

THE FIXTURES OF FAIRS.-A correspondent of the Salisbury Journal, in a very interesting and ingenious letter, suggests the connection of fairs with some ecclesiastical foundation. select a few of the instances he gives in illustration of his position :-Bradford; The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the fair is held on Trinity Monday. Calne: The church is dedicated to the patron of Penitents, St. Mary Magdalen, whose feast is on the 22nd of July, on which day the fair is held. Chippenham and Collingburn Ducis: These churches are dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle; feast, Nov. 30, fair days, the feast, old style, Dec. 11. Corsham: The church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew; feast, Aug. 24, and the fair is on the feast, old style, Sept. 4. Devizes: Dedicated to St. Mary, and the fair is held on the feast of the Purification, old style, Feb. 18. St. Ann's Hill (near Devizes): The feast of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, is July 26, and the fair is held on the feast, old style, Aug. 6. Steeple Ashton is another of the Wiltshire churches, dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and on the feast of her Nativity, old style, Sept. 19, a fair is holden. Trowbridge: The church is dedicated to St. James; feast, July 25, and on the feast, old style, Aug. 5, is the fair. Warminster: The church is dedicated to St. Denis; feast, April 22, on which day is one of the fairs of the town. These

GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS.

Alps. majestic hills take their name from the snows

with which their summits are continually covered; the Sabine word Alpum signifying the same as the Latin Album, Anglice White.-France.-So called from the Franci or Franks, a people of Germany who seized on those parts of it nearest the Rhine, in the time of Valentinian the Third, and afterwards subduing Paris, they made it the seat-royal of their growing empire; and thus caused the country thereabouts to be called France. Hibernia.-Most probably from Ibernæ, a Phoenician word, meaning the farthest habitation; there being no country known among the ancients west of Ireland.-Portugal.-Was anciently called Lusitania, from the Lusitani who then inhabited it; it took its present name from the haven of Porto, at the mouth of the Duerus, where the Gauls used to land their merchandise, thence it was called Portus Gallorum. This town was given in dower with Teresa, daughter of Alphonso the Sixth, to Henry de Lorrain, who took the title of Earl of Portugal; his successors coming to be kings, extended the name to all those parts which they conquered from the Moors.-Russia.-Took its denomination from the Rossi or Russi, a people of Mount Taurus or Taurica Chersonesus, who possessed themselves of some parts of it in the declining times of the Greek empire, and being the prevailing people imposed their name upon all the rest.-Greece, is a name given from Græcus, son of Cecrops, first king of Athens.

EMISETTE IN BRODERIE ANGLAISE. Materials. French muslin, and the embroidery Con, No. 70, of Messrs. Walter Evans, and of Derby.

OUR page limits us to a reduced enving of this very simple and pretty tern, which is pure Broderie Anglaise, hout any admixture of difficult stitches. e pattern being enlarged to the proper mensions, is to be marked on the muslin h a solution of gum arabic and stonee; then tacked on a piece of toile ciré, worked. The round holes are to be rced with a stiletto; the others to be

cut out in the proper form, with small scissors, and all are merely to be sewed round smoothly and closely.

Those who do not like the trouble of enlarging for themselves, can have the front marked, with cotton and toile ciré for 3s.

FLORAL MAT.

Materials. Five shades of crimson Berlin wool, from brown to light cherry-4 skeins of each; white, 2 skeins; and lilac, 1 skein; 1 skein of shaded green crystal wool; 1 skein of gold coloured crochet silk, and one ball of gold crystal twine. 2 yards of cord to work over will also be wanted.

WITH the darkest wool, work as closely as possible over the end of the cord, and form it into a round. Work on it another round, increasing sufficiently to keep it flat, and using the same wool.

2nd Round. (Same colour, and white.) + 3 white, 3 brown, + 7 times in the round.

3rd Round. (Same colours.) 5 white over 3, 3 brown on brown. + 7 times. 4th Round.-(Next crimson and white.) +6 white over 5, 5 crimson on 3+7 times.

5th Round.

(Crochet silk and next crimson.)+7 silk over 6 white, 6 crimson over 5. + 7 times.

6th Round.-(Next shade and silk.) Do 3 silk over the centre of 7 silk, and cover

the intermediate space with the wool, increasing sufficiently to keep the mat quite flat, and to cover the cord on which you are working.

7th Round.-(Lightest crimson and silk.) +1 silk on the centre of 3 silk; now

cover half the space between it and the next three, with the light wool; then do a single stitch with the crochet silk, only instead of working over the cord, insert the hook in the centre of the 5 crimson in the 4th round; then continue with the lightest wool. 7 times in the round. Fasten off the cord, over which you have been working.

8th Round. With a bone hook, and the darkest wool, working very slackly, + De under both sides of the chain, 1 Ch, De under the same stitch, miss 3. + all round.

9th Round. (Next shade.) De under a chain,+1 Ch, De under the same, De under the next. + all round.

10th Round.-(Next shade). Like the last, but with 2 Ch instead of one. 11th Round.-(Next shade). Like the 1st, but with 3 chains.

Sc

12th Round. (Lightest shade). between any two De that have no chain between them, + 4 Ch, 3 De under the chain of last round, 1 Ch, 3 De under the next chain, 1 Ch, 3 De under the next, 1 Ch, 3 De under the next, 4 Ch, Sc after the next De stitch. + repeat 9 times in the round.

13th Round. With the silk, + Sc on the chain before the first 3 De stitches, + the first Sc of last row, 3 Ch, Sc under Ch, Sc after the next 3 Dc, 3 Ch. +9 4 Ch, Sc under the 1 Ch, + 3 times, 4

times.