Hill. — On Cordiceps robertsii. 401 



15 in. in the largest specimens, and in the smallest ones the 

 seem is only 2 in. or so. 



I have made a number of experiments to discover whether 

 the spores would germinate on other caterpillars, but have 

 been as yet unsuccessful. I believe, however, that it will be 

 possible to trace the effect of the growing spores upon cater- 

 pillars when inhumed under favourable conditions, and experi- 

 ments are now being carried on to test whether such is 

 possible. To me it is evident that we know nothing whatever 

 as to the life-history of the caterpillar known as Cordiceps 

 robertsii. How it lives, where it lives, under what conditions 

 it is inhumed and attacked are all questions yet to be decided. 

 That the caterpillar is attacked by a spore externally is 

 evident by a mere examination of the specimens, and I am 

 inclined to the opinion that the mycelium-like growth merely 

 surrounds or envelopes the caterpillar, but does not absorb 

 the juices whilst the animal is living. It is curious that the 

 spores only appear to find a favourite locality for production 

 on the Cordiceps robertsii. All the specimens I have belong 

 to the same variety of caterpillar, and, although I can culti- 

 vate the spores, all my attempts to get them to grow on other 

 caterpillars have up to the present time failed. But the con- 

 ditions under which the caterpillars have been placed may 

 account for the failure, and further experiments are necessary 

 before definitely stating that the fungoid growth is special to 

 Cordiceps. 



In any case, the growth of a vegetable organism upon an 

 animal, from whicK it obtains sustenance, is suggestive to 

 the scientist. The forms and functions of organized life have 

 gone back, as it were, in these latter days to the study of 

 the lowest known organisms, and the world of intelligence has 

 been moved at the discoveries which scientific men have made 

 in the domain of bacteriology. I make no remark upon the 

 wonders of this noble science beyond suggesting that the 

 vegetable caterpillar supplies a fine illustration of a vegetable 

 organism depending for its life and its development upon an 

 animal ; and may it not be that the bacteria which flit here 

 and there, sometimes to destroy and sometimes to renew, 

 act upon animal functions in a similar way, and eventually 

 destroy that upon which they are sustained and are brought 

 to ripeness? ^ 



Appended are pnotographs of the varieties of the vegetable 

 caterpillar referred to in this paper. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXI. 



Fig. 1. Cordiceps robertsii. 



Fig. 2. „ asci, showing mode of growth (micro-photo.). 



26 



