230 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



bright colouration is of some preponderating service 

 to the Phalloids, and this service may be inferred 

 from the results of the investigations with the com- 

 mon stinkhorn. There is one small fact in connection 

 with this group of fungi which cannot be altogether 

 devoid of importance ; it is the unusually small size 

 of the spores or reproductive bodies, which are 

 uniformly and ridiculously minute, in comparison to 

 the size of the fully developed plants, in all the 

 Phalloids. This minute size must facilitate the ad- 

 mission of the spores into the alimentary canal of 

 such insects as flies, who thrive principally by suction. 

 Finally, it must be contended that this small group 

 are especially noteworthy, as supreme over all other 

 groups of fungi, in the possession of a strong fetid 

 odour ; in the deliquescence of this fetid portion, which 

 bears some resemblance to putrid animal matter ; 

 in the preponderance of a conspicuous colouration, 

 and in general attractiveness to insects, which con- 

 sequently swarm about them, and doubtless aid in 

 the perpetuation of the species. 



Vegetable Wasps. 



The romantic story which was told in 1749, and 

 repeated many times afterwards, of the Vegetable 

 Wasps of the West Indies, like all similar stories, 

 had a basis of truth. It was simply an exaggeration 

 and distortion of a natural phenomenon. It is well 

 known to naturalists that in almost all countries 

 there are occasionally found dead insects, in one or 

 other of their stages, upon which a club-shaped 

 fungus is found growing. The plain, unvarnished 



