CONTENTS Page[A Naturalist's Boyhood]xi[The Story of the Floundering Beetle]1[Fox-fire]11[A Homely Weed with Interesting Flowers]24[Two Fairy Sponges]34[Green Pansies]44[Mr. and Mrs. Tumble-bug]53[Those Horse-hair Snakes]64["Professor Wiggler"]72["Cow-spit, Snake-spit, and Frog-spit"]83[The Paper Wasp and His Doings]91[The Spider's Span]104[Ballooning Spiders]112[The Lace-wing Fly]122[The Perfumed Beetle]130 [Mushroom Spore-prints]136[Some Curious Cocoons]145[Nettle-leaf Tent-builders]154[The Evening Primrose]163[The Dandelion Burglar]171[The Troubles of the House-fly]178[Tendrils]185[A Strange Story of a Grasshopper]195[Riddles in Flowers]202[Luck in Clovers]213[Barberry Manners]221[A Woolly Flock]230["What Ails Him?"]238[The Cicada's Last Song]246[Index]257List of Designs Page[William Hamilton Gibson]Frontispiece[Initial]xi[Initial. Buttercup Leaves]1[Three Views of a Helpless Beetle]2[Down Among the Buttercup Leaves]3[An Adventurous Baby]6[The Adopted Home]9[Initial. Fox-fire and Fungus]11[A Luminous Fragment]13[Three Specimens by Day]15[Three Specimens by Night]15[A Fox-fire Bugaboo]17[The Bugaboo by Daylight]21[Initial. The Figwort]24[A Flower with Three Welcomes]29[Sipping the Nectar. Fig 1.]31[In Flight with Pollen. Fig. 2.]31[Transferring the Pollen to Stigma. Fig. 3.]32[Fifth Day—Pod Enlarging]32[Singular Method of Branching and Flowering]33[Initial]34 [The Rose Mischief-maker]35[The Fairy Using Her Magic Wand]36[The Elfin Sponge of the Oak]39[The Real Fairy of the Oak Sponge]40[The Elfin Sponge of the Brier Rose]42[The Inhabited Rose Sponge]43[Initial. Pansies]44[The Materials]47[Making a Whole Plant Green]51[A Tumbler Concealed Near By]52[Initial. The Sacred Scarabæus]53[Mr. and Mrs. Tumble-bug Rolling the Ball]57[Sinking the Ball]61[Young Tumble-bug Digging out from His Dungeon]63[Initial]64[Amos]66[Dangerous Ground for Grasshoppers and Crickets]69[Busy Grasshoppers]71[Initial. Lilacs]72["Professor Wiggler" at Home]74[The Lilac Twig in June]75[Tunnelling the Twig]80["Professor Wiggler" Moth]81[Initial. Grasses and Weeds]83[The Home of the "Spume-bearer"]87[The Real Culprits]90[Initial. A Nest of the Paper Wasp]91[A Wolf in the Fold]95[He was Hanging Head Downward]99[Off for the Paper Nest]101[Initial. Brooklyn Bridge]104[Bridging the Brook]107[From Tree to Tree]109[Initial. Preparing for Flight]112 [Draped in the Glittering Meshes]116[Spider-egg Cocoon]120[Initial. The Lace-wing Fly]122[The Wolf in the Fold]125[A Tempting Aphis Brood]127[Where the Aphides Swarm]128[Initial. A Woodland Path]130[The Perfumed Beetles]133[Initial. A Spore-print]136[Spore Surface of a Polyporus]139[Spore Surface of a Polygaric]139[Method of Making Spore-prints]141[Spore-print of a Boletus]143[Initial. A Nocturnal Bird]145[From a Correspondent]147[The Contents of the Cocoon]149[Where the Cocoon Came From]150["The Owl on Muffled Wing"]152[Initial. Nettles]154[Leaf-tents of the "Comma" Caterpillar]157[A Design for a Jeweller]160[Initial. The Evening Primrose]163[Two Kinds of Buds]166[The Evening Primrose]167["The Worm i' the Bud"]168[The Chrysalis and its Moth]169[The Substitute for the Bud]170[Initial. Dandelions]171[The Nest-builder]175[Initial. A Fly Model]178[An Interrupted Toilet]179[An Episode of Fly time]182[A Victim of Fly Fungus]184[Initial. Sweet-peas]185 [An Impossible and Real Tendril]186[Grape Tendrils Evolved from Blossoms]188[The Star Cucumber and its Compound Tendrils]190[The Prank of a Tendril]193[Initial. An Impaled "Quaker"]195[The Haunt of the Grasshopper]197[The Birth of the Parasites]200[The Two-formed Flowers]202[Puzzling Forms and Faces]203[A. Fertilization of a Flower, as Believed by Grew and Linnæus]206[B. Linnæus's Idea was Wrong]206[C. and D. What Sprengel did not Explain]207[The Way in which the Flower is Fertilized]210[Initial. Clover Leaves]213[A Rowen Field]217[A Five-Leaved Specimen]219[Sleeping Clover]220[Initial. A Barberry Branch]221["In Arching Bowers"]225[Barberry Blossoms, Showing Sepals and Petals Open. Fig. 1]226[Barberry Blossoms, Showing the Approach of the Bee. Fig. 2]228[Initial. A Woolly Flock]230[One of the Flock Magnified]233[A Winged Aphis]235[Initial. Woodbine Branch and Sphinx Caterpillar]238[What Happened the Next Day]241[What He Should Have Become]244[The Mischief-Maker]245[Initial. Bearing Off the Prey]246[A Section of the Sand-bank]252[In the Dungeon]255