Hill.— On Cordieeps robertsii. 397 



body of the caterpillar in the finest specimens, attains a 

 length of 3^ in., and the stem which germinates from this 

 metamorphosed body of the caterpillar is from Gin. to 10 in. 

 high. Its apex when in a state of fructification resembles 

 the club-headed bulrush in miniature, and when examined 

 with a powerful glass presents the appearance of an ovary. 

 There are no leaves ; a solitary stem comprises the entire 

 plant, but if any accident break it off a second stem arises 

 from the same spot. The body is not only always found 

 buried, but the greater portion of the stalk, as well as the 

 seed-vessel, alone is above ground. When the plant has 

 attained its maturity it soon dies away. These curious plants 

 are far from being uncommon. I have examined at least a 

 hundred. The natives eat them when fresh, and likewise 

 use them when burnt as colouring-matter for their tattooing, 

 rubbing the powder into the wounds, in which state it has a 

 strong auimal smell. When newly dug up the substance of 

 the caterpillar is soft, and when divided longitudinally the 

 intestinal canal is distinctly seen. Most specimens possess 

 the legs entire, with the horny part of the head, the mandibles, 

 and claws. The vegetating process invariably proceeds from 

 the nape of the neck, from which it may be inferred that the 

 insect, in crawling to the place where it inhumes itself prior 

 to its metamorphosis, whilst burrowing in the light vegetable 

 soil, gets some of the minute seeds of this fungus between the 

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

 able to free itself ; and as a consequence these, being nourished 

 by the warmth and moisture of the insect's body, then lying 

 in a motionless state, vegetate, and not only impede the 

 process of change in the chrysalis, but likewise occasion the 

 death of the insect. That the vegetating process thus com- 

 mences during the life of the insect appears certain from the 

 fact of the caterpillar, when converted into a plant, always 

 preserving its perfect form ; in no one instance has de- 

 composition appeared to have commenced, or the skin to 

 have contracted or expanded beyond its natural size." 



The "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute " con- 

 tain some information on this interesting question, but no 

 experiments seem to have been carried on by any of those 

 who have written on the subject, and the information that 

 contains the first descriptive account of the hotehe is 

 perhaps as full and as correct as anything that has since 

 appeared. 



In the " Proceedings of the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society," 14th November, 1894, there is an abstract of a 

 paper on vegetable parasites by the late W. M. Maskell, and 

 some valuable remarks are given as to the action of vegetable 

 parasites on insects. Eeferring to the house-fly fungus {En- 



