THE PARASITIC FUNGI OF INSECTS. 81 



whilst burrowing in the soil, gets some of the spores between the 

 scales of its neck, from which in its sickening state it is 

 unable to free itself These being nourished by the warmth and 

 moisture of the insect's body, then lying in a motionless state, 

 vegetate. The fungus then pushes its way up through the 

 soil and appears above the surface of the ground, attaining the 

 height of some two or three inches, sometimes branching out in 

 antler form, or sometimes merely club-headed like a bulrush. 

 The fungus has a strong animal smell, but the flavour is said to be 

 like that of a nut, and is used as an article of diet by the natives 

 of New Zealand and also by the Chinese for stuffing turkeys. 



The older writers wrote very quaintly on the subject of these 

 fungi. The Rev. W. Taylor wrote : " There are birds which dis- 

 possess others of their nests, and marine animals which take up their 

 abode in deserted shells ; but this plant surpasses all in killing, 

 and taking possession, and making the body of the insect the 

 foundation from whence it rears its stem, and the source from 

 which it derives its support." 



Attwood, in his history of Dominica, speaking of what he 

 calls a vegetable fly, says, " It is of the appearance and size of a 

 small cockchafer, and buries itself in the ground, where it dies ; 

 and from its body springs up a small plant, which resembles a 

 young coffee tree, only that its leaves are smaller. It is often 

 overlooked from the supposition people have that it is none other 

 than a coffee-plant ; but on examining it properly, the difference 

 is easily distinguished — the head, body, and feet of the insect 

 appearing at the root as perfect as when alive." The Rev. Nicholas 

 Collins described a certain zoophyton in the Ohio county, which 

 he declared was both vegetable and animal, for having crawled 

 about the woods in its animal state till it grew weary of that mode 

 of existence, it fixed itself in the ground and became a stately 

 plant, with a stem issuing out of its mouth. 



Another writer, moralising on the subject of the vegetating 

 wasp of the West Indies, says it is an instance of a retrograde step 

 in nature when the insect, instead of rising to the higher order and 

 soaring to the skies, sinks into a plant and remains attached to 

 the soil, in which it has buried itself 



Modern research has cleared up many of the doubts and diffi- 



