84 Dr Mitchill on the Growth of Vegetables 



the untaught inhabitants suppose a fly to vegetate ; and 

 though there exists a Spanish drawing of the plant'*s growing 

 into a trifoliate tree ; and it has been figured with the crea- 

 ture flying with this tree on its back. So wild are the imagi- 

 nations of man : so chaste and uniform is nature !" 



Dr Mitchill, from his reference to Dr Watson's paper, to 

 the figures of Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History^ 

 and to M. Fougereau's paper in the Memoirs of the French 

 Academy of Sciences for 1769, seems to be perfectly aware 

 of the opinions entertained on this subject; and we were 

 therefore much surprised, that in his Letter he was not more 

 particular in ascertaining whether the animals he examined 

 were really alive. The whole value of his observations turns on 

 this point ; for the finding specimens of dead or decomposing 

 insects or larvae in Virginia, with clavariae growing from them, 

 similar to what are found on animals of the same class in the 

 West Indian Islands, only proves that similar causes produce 

 similar effects in both countries. In his account of the spe- 

 cimen of a Melolontha from Mr Burwell, it is not mentioned 

 that the animal was alive : Dr Ross's specimen of a Sphynx 

 from Jamaica must evidently have been dead ; and the same 

 remark applies to the West Indian Sphynx of Dr Maddiana. 

 The other fact communicated by this latter gentlemen, re- 

 garding the wasp's nest, is of the same nature. It was in 

 wasps '' ^y'i't^g dead on the ground " alone that he perceived 

 the marks of vegetation ; and though he " satisfied himself" 

 that in the larvae contained in the cells " there was an inci- 

 pient vegetation," yet, from his omitting to say that they 

 were really alive, the presumption is, that in these also life was 

 extinct, and that they were in a state of decomposition. 



In Mr Jacob Cist's notice of the Melolontha^ in the eighth 

 volume of Dr Silliman's Journal, also referred to by Dr Mit- 

 chill, that gentleman states, from personal examination of num- 

 bers of the larvae of this insect in Pennsylvania, that " in 

 every instance the grub is not only dead, but in a state of de- 

 cay, and the sprout rising about the ground indicates where 

 they may be found." Mr Cist's figures accompanying his notice 

 show evidently that the plant is a Clavaria ; and his theory 

 for its production is, that the " seed is taken internally by the 



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