Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

Page 11 text:

October sixth came the next change. One chrysalis became dark, and the brown and black markings of the wings could be seen. The next morning he was found trying to climb a knitting needle, but took kindly to a finger when it was held in the line of his progress, and seemed cpiite at home on the fringed gentian he was carried to. His wings had enlarged, and were a rich, reddish brown, but they were still very soft. He tried to raise them but was not yet strong enough, so he settled down to coil his tongue. This was in two pieces, each being a half tube and had tiny teeth along the edges which fitted together. He patted them together and took them apart many times, once even parting them when he had put them together the entire length. As he worked he coiled and uncoiled it. It was more than half an hour before he had it arranged to his satisfaction, and by this time he was able to raise his wings a little. He refused to eat then, but later he fluttered his wings in excitement and climbed a finger to suck the water from around some grains of sugar. He felt awkwardly around with the long tongue until he found the water, and then sucked it up clean. He was put back on the gentians; and set out-of-doors in a sunny spot, and before sundown, he had flown away. The second one flew before noon the next day, and we hope “they lived happily ever after.” ALICE ARLENE RHODES, ’20. 9

Page 10 text:

The Life of a Butterfly The Monarch is one of our best known butterflies. It is a Southerner and spends its summers in the North. Its wings are a tawny brown with black veinings. In the fall they gather into large flocks and go South. They seem to fly all winter, and in spring they come North singly, some laying their eggs as far north as New Yorkand Minnesota. The butterflies of this brood fly still farther North. Monarchs are very strong fliers, and it is said that in thirty years, by ships, and by long flights, they have spread over nearly all the islands of the Pacific, down to Australia. This is its life history: On August twenty-second, two tiny white eggs were discovered on the under side of a tender milkweed leaf. Under a microscope they showed beautifully regular ridges and hollows. This leaf was shut into a jelly glass and watched more or less carefully. The next day, one egg was lead colored at the tip, and later they had both disappeared. After some searching, two small caterpillars were found. They were a pale, almost transparent, grayish green with shining black heads, two pairs of black filaments or horns, one pair at each end. and black legs. They had probably eaten their shells and were now eating little holes in the leaf. As they grew bigger, they ate entire leaves. By August twenty-fifth they had ten black lines entirely across, and two nearly so. Their bodies were nearly white, and had grown from three thirty-seconds to three sixteenths of an inch long. It was on September third that we first knew of their moulting, tho they probably had done so before. They usually moult four or five times. The little caterpillar stopped feeding for a while, the colors dulled, and finally, with a strong muscular effort, he split his skin just back of the head. It slid down in folds, leaving him wet and tired. His filaments were soft and bent. After a time his horns became straight and hardened, and he was rested and hungry. He turned around and ate his old skin. Such an economical way of disposing of old clothing! It was all gone but the mask, a little transparent face, barred with black, that had dropped into the bottom of the glass. The next day the smaller caterpillar moulted. From this time on, their appetites were enormous, and by September twelfth they were over one and a half inches long. Thy were big, plump caterpillars, white with regular yellow and black transverse stripes, and the two pairs of long black filaments. Their faces were yellow with black bandings. On September fifteenth, one was hanging in his chrysalis. The other had spun a little web on the bottom of the can cover, and fastened his hind pair of prolegs into it. He hung downward in the shape of a “J” and gradually he grew duller and dead looking. The next day, he too had shed his skin, and they both hung there in beautiful pale green bags trimmed with gold buttons. The position of the tiny wings, the body and other parts could be seen thru the thin green covering. 8

Page 12 text:

Some Ornamental Characters and Seasonal Values of Woody Plants The trees and shrubs appeal to our sense of beauty and grandeur in many ways; by their size, by their general outlines, and the character and arrangement of their branches; by the color, abundance and duration of their foliage, their texture and the color and character of their bark; by their buds, tlieir blossoms and their fruit, by the birds they attract and by their asociation with our childhood memories. No appreciative person can look upon a large tree, stretching its branches high and wide, without being impressed by it. No responsive person can walk through a forest without a feeling akin to reverence. The trees vary in outline from the almost globular form of the Nor wav-maple, through the white pines, with their pyramidal forms and the dense wliorls of branches with gaps between, and the firs and spruces with their conical outlines, to the irregularity of the old willows and the columnar forms of the Tombardy poplars. And the same tree changes its shape, as it grows. The young elm is vasiform; but it broadens as the years go by, until at full maturity it has a broad rounded top, with arching branches. The sweet cherry and button-wood have central leaders and a regular, rather upright, growth when young, but they become more spreading and lose their trunks in branches, as they grow older. And trees vary in the distinctness of their outlines. Some, as the horse-chestnut, stand out sharply against the sky while others, as the Weir’s cutleaved maple, have a feathery indistinctness. The sharply upward growth of the branches of the Lombardy poplar accentuates its height. The slender, pendant branches of the weeping birch give it an air of fragile gracefulness. The huge shoots of the Hercules Club, when it is bare of leaves, express sturdiness and boldness. We are likely to think of the foliage of the trees and shrubs, as simply green; but it varies greatly in the shade of color. And the general color effect of a tree at a distance maybe very different from that of a leaf in one’s hand. The California privet is a dark green, the red maple a medium green, the pin oak a shining green, the white willow a grayish green, and the native buttonwood a yellowish green. Of course, the health and vigor of the tree or shrub may have a great influence upon its color, the more healthy the tree is, the darker its foliage. There are also nursery grown trees and shrubs with variegated leaves or reddish, purple or yellowish foliage. Such specimens take away from the beauty of their surroundings instead of adding to it, unless they be used very sparingly and skilfully. 'File range of autumn colors, from the green to the crimsons of the oaks, the scarlets of the maples, and the yellows and browns of the beeches, is one of the most beautiful sights that the world affords. The horse chestnut and Norway maple have dense, heavy foliage masses, while that of the ginko or maiden-hair tree drapes rather than covers its trunk and branches, that, like a group of spires, point to the different quarters of the sky. j 10