286 DR BENNETT ON THE PARASITIC VEGETABLE STRUCTUEES 



the egg placed in water, under the form of simple or ramified branches, which are 

 extended to the surface and a little beyond the water. They terminate en masse. 

 VALENTIN 1 also saw confervse in a state of active growth, for several days, 

 upon the ova of (probably) Limnius stagnalis, during which period the embryo 

 was in lively motion, and which did not die till later. 2 



Insects. LEDERMULLER 3 noticed the fact, that on leaving dead flies in water 

 for a certain time, plants spring from the surface of their bodies. Similar observa- 

 tions have been made by WRISBERG/ SPALLANZANI, S OTTO FRIEDERICH MULLER/ 



liYNGBYE, 7 GlLL, 8 GoTHE, 9 NEES VON ESENBECK, 10 and MEYEN." 



Parasitic vegetables have also been observed on living insects. On this sub- 

 ject KIRBY and SpENCE 12 justly remark, " that as insects often pass no small 

 portion of their lives in a state of torpidity, in which they remain chiefly without 

 motion, it will not seem strange, should any partial moisture accidentally accumu- 

 late upon them, that it affords a seed-plot for certain minute fungi to come up and 

 grow in." Hence, probably, may be explained the phenomenon of the mwm plant, 

 described by PE'RE PARRENIN and REAUMUR," and of the vegetable fly found in 

 Dominica, described by NEWMAN. U To this circumstance, also, it seems most 

 rational to attribute the growth on insects of certain species of Clavaria, as men- 

 tioned by HlLL, 15 FOUGEREAUX DE BONDAROY, 16 BuCHNER, 17 and WESTWOOD ; 18 of 



certain species of Isaria, noticed by PERSOON I!) and SCHWEINITZ ; 20 of the Peni- 

 cillium Fieberi, figured to exist on the Pentatoma prasina, by CoRDA, 21 and of the 

 Spharia entomorhiza, noticed by DICKSON, MADIANNA, and HALSEY, 22 and seen by 

 them growing on the vegetable wasp of Guadaloupe. 



1 Repertorium, vol. v. p. 44. 



2 See also GRUITHUISEN, Nova Acta, vol. x. p. 445 ; who gives a description of, and figures con- 

 fervae growing from, a dead Valvata branchiata. 



3 Mikroskopische Ergbtzungen, 1760 ; pp. 1-90, tab. xlix. fig. 2. 



* Obs. de Animalculis Infusoriis Satura. Goettingse, 1765 ; p. 31, fig. 9-2. 



5 Opuscules de Physique Animate et Vegetale, torn. i. p. 157. 



6 Neue Samml. d. Schriften der Kbnigl. Danischen. Ges. d. Wiss. Copenhagen, 1788 ; iii. p. 13. 

 And Nova Acta, vol. iv. p. 215. 



7 Hydrophylotogia Danica, p. 79, tab. xxii. See also Flora Danica, tab. 896. 



8 Technological Repository, vol. iv. p. 331. Heften zur Morphologic, i. p. 292. 



10 Nova Acta Physico-Medica, &c. 1831, vol. xv. Pars post. p. 375, tab. 79 and 80. 



11 Idem, p. 381, and WIEGMANN'S Archives, 1840, p. 62. I2 Entomology, vol. iv. p. 207. 



13 Mem. de 1'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1726, p. 426. 



14 Philosophical Transactions, 1764, p. 271. 15 Idem, p. 272. 



16 Mem. de 1'Acad. Roy. 1769, p. 591. 



17 Nova Acta, vol. iii. p. 437, tab. 7. 



18 Annals of Nat. History, Nov. 1841, vol. viii. p. 217- 



19 Synops. Meth. Fung. 687. g. 63, s. 12. 



20 Annals of the Lyceum Nat. Hist, of New York, vol. i. pp. 125-6. 



21 Icones Fungorum hucusque cognitorum, Pragse, 1837, 1840. 



22 Annals of Lyceum, Nat. Hist. Soc. New York, vol. i. p. 126. 



