on the bodies of Living- Animals. S5 



worm, and causes its death ; and that in the following spring 

 it vegetates, finding a suitable bed or soil in the decayed 

 worm." 



As to the circumstance of the fungous vegetation proceed- 

 ing from the mouth or from the anterior part of the sternum, 

 it may be remarked that this is the most likely place, from its 

 being the commencement of the intestinal canal, and in the 

 neighbourhood of soft parts, for decomposition to commence, 

 and vegetation, of course, to take its rise. Neither does it fa- 

 vour the hypothesis of Dr Mitchill, that, in some specimens, 

 the fungous vegetation w?s found on the larvae, and in others 

 on the perfect insect ; as it does not necessarily follow from 

 this circumstance that the minute seeds of these vegetable pro- 

 ductions, sown by the winds (according to Dr Mitchill) on 

 the body of the larvae, should survive its metamorphosis, and 

 decorate the body of the winged insect with a crop of fo- 

 liage. Deprivation of life and incipient decomposition would, 

 in both cases, produce the same result ; and this is further 

 confirmed by the fact that the vegetable production is not lar- 

 ger in the fly than in the larva, though it ought to be so on 

 the reverse supposition. Dr Mitchill must likewise be aware 

 of the speedy, the almost instantaneous growth of many spe- 

 cies of fungi ; and this circumstance is sufficient to account for 

 the appearance of the plant in the same state on the bodies of 

 full grown wasps and their larvae, both, probably, in Dr Mad- 

 diana's instance, deprived of life by the same accident. 



The facts of the case not being established, it is not neces- 

 sary to follow out the author's reflections on the " fungous 

 tribes of cryptogamic vegetables" being "the destroyers of 

 the insect race ;" or to enter into questions regarding the ba- 

 lance of power between the insect or vegetable republics in 

 their mutual " ravages " and " reprisals." 



Dr MitchilPs presumptions from analogous processes in 

 other departments of nature have no application. Living ve- 

 getables have been long known to support parasitic living ve- 

 getables ; dead vegetable and animal matter is a fertile source 

 of cryptogamic vegetation ; and the instances of parasitic ani- 

 mals on other animals are so numerous, as almost to have be- 

 come a general law among animated beings. The shells of 



