30 Dr Mitchill on the Growth of Vegetables 



Art. v.— Fi^M;* of the Process in Nature by which, under 

 particular circumstances , vegetables grow on the bodies of 

 Living Animals. By Dr Samuel L. Mitchill of New 

 York, F. R. S. E. &c. With remarks by a Correspondent. 



In the 12th volume of Professor Silliman's Journal, Dr Mit- 

 chill has inserted a Letter written by him to Professor De- 

 candolle of Geneva, on the growth of vegetables on the bodies 

 of living animals. As the subject is a curious one, and the 

 occurrence, if the observations be correct, anomalous, we shall 

 transcribe his own words. 



" My attention was called to these curious appearances in 

 the year 1808, when my friend, William A. Burwell, Esq. 

 brought me, from his own plantation, in Virginia, the larva 

 of an insect, upon which a vegetable had fixed itself, and 

 grown to a considerable size. He had found several others 

 of the same kind, and in a similar condition. From the long 

 and semi-cylindric figure, the wrinkled and whitish surface, 

 marked by rings, the scaly head and strong jaws, the nume- 

 rous feet, and the arched or curved attitude, I was induced 

 to consider it as belonging to the species of Melolontha, or 

 May-bug, whose grub is destructive, at times, to the roots of 

 grass in meadows and pastures. The vegetable was single, 

 and had been somewhat injured by handling and transporta- 

 tion ; yet the lower part of the stem and the point of attach- 

 ment were very distinct. My informant assured me, that, 

 when picked up, the vegetables were complete in this and va- 

 rious other specimens. But there was no more than one on 

 each. 



" Some years afterwards, another vegetating insect was pre- 

 sented to me by the late William M. Ross, M. D. who ob- 

 tained it in the Island of Jamaica during his residence there. 

 It was a full-grown individual of a Sphynx or Hawk-moth, 

 whose whole body had been covered with a vegetable crop, 

 issuing thick from the thorax and abdomen. 



" Another Sphynx, with its body covered with a harvest 

 of parasitical vegetables, has since been exhibited to me by 



