232 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



a long twisted stem, and a shortly club-shaped head. 

 Perhaps the entire length seldom exceeds one inch, 

 and the thickness not more than that of a good-sized 

 pin (Fig. 41). The discoverer of this phenomenon was 

 a Franciscan friar, called Father Torrubia, who found 

 them at Havana, in 1749. He says, "I found some 

 dead wasps in the fields (however, they 

 were entire, the bodies, wings, and all, 

 and indeed were perfect skeletons). 

 From the belly of every wasp a plant 

 germinated, which grows about five spans 

 high." In 1758 these productions were 

 figured in a book of " Natural History," 

 and represented the wasps as flying away 

 with the fungus attached to their bodies, 

 although the original observer states 

 ^ , that he found them dead in the field. 



Fig. 41. — Cordy- 



cef-ssft'ccocephaia. Here, then, the distortion of facts may 



on Wasp. ' ' ' 



be assumed to have commenced, in the 

 representation of flying insects. Something came 

 also to be added, by way of description, " After they 

 buried themselves in May they began to vegetate 

 toward the end of July, or rather they are found so 

 about that time. When the tree has arrived at its 

 full growth it resembles a coral branch, about three 

 inches high, bearing several little pods, w^hich are 

 supposed by the inhabitants to drop off and become 

 worms, and from thence flies." Thus the original 

 story gained gradually, by repetition, until it became 

 a marvellous tale. The justification of these additions 

 are furnished, it is stated, by Father Torrubia him- 

 self, for the original plate to his travels is said by 



