lly already in existence. I can plainly recognise the longitudinal
nervures, which are already stiff; and I can also see--pale, and without
relief--the transverse nervures. I find them all in the terminal stump,
and am able to spread out a few of its folds under the microscope.

It is obvious that the wing is not a tissue in the process of making,
through which the procreative energy of the vital juices is shooting its
shuttle; it is a tissue already complete. To be perfect it lacks only
expansion and rigidity, just as a piece of lace or linen needs only to
be ironed.

In three hours or more the explanation is complete. The wings and elytra
stand erect over the locust's back like an immense set of sails; at
first colourless, then of a tender green, like the freshly expanded
wings of the Cigale. I am amazed at their expanse when I think of the
miserable stumps from which they have expanded. How did so much material
contrive to occupy so little space?

There is a story of a grain of hemp-seed that contained all the
body-linen of a princess. Here we have something even more astonishing.
The hemp-seed of the story needed long years to germinate, to multiply,
and at last to give the quantity of hemp required for the trousseau of a
princess; but the germ of the locust's wing has expanded to a
magnificent sail in a few short hours.

Slowly the superb erection composed of the four flat fan-like pinions
assumes rigidity and colour. By to-morrow the colour will have attained
the requisite shade. For the first time the wings close fan-wise and lie
down in their places; the elytra bend over at their outer edges, forming
a flange which lies snugly over the flanks. The transformation is
complete. Now the great locust has only to harden its tissues a little
longer and to tan the grey of its costume in the ecstasy of the
sunshine. Let us leave it to its happiness, and return to an earlier
moment.

The four stumps which emerge from their coverings shortly after the
rupture of the corselet along its median line contain, as we have seen,
the wings and elytra with their innumerable nervures. If not perfect,
at least the general plan is complete, with all its innumerable details.
To expand these miserable bundles and convert them into an ample set of
sails it is enough that the organism, acting like a force-pump, should
force into the channels already prepared a stream of humours kept in
reserve for this moment and this purpose, the mo