FUNGI. 233 



Mr. Gray, who had seen it, to give a representation of 

 two wasps lying on the ground with a tree growing 

 out of the base of the abdomen, while three other 

 wasps are flying round the trees that are growing 

 from the ground, having a similar tree affixed to 

 each insect. Each tree is furnished with numerous 

 trifoliated leaves. 



From this region of romance we descend to later 

 times, to discover what is absolutely authentic in the 

 story of " vegetable wasps ;" and about the year 1824 

 we obtain a more reasonable and feasible narrative of 

 specimens, obtained from Guadeloupe, of what is 

 evidently the same thing, known to the inhabitants 

 by the name of la gucpe veg^tale, or vegetable wasp. 

 " The club rises somewhat flexuously or spirally, and 

 the head, instead of being globose, is ovate." It is 

 added that the observer noticed "the wasp still living, 

 with its incumbrance attached to it, though apparently 

 in the last stage of existence, and seeming about to 

 perish from the influence of the destructive parasite." 



A summary of the veritable portion of the above 

 story has been given in the following words : " Speci- 

 mens of Hymenopterous insects, resembling wasps, 

 have been brought from the West Indies, with a 

 fungus growing from between their anterior coxae, 

 and it is positively asserted by travellers that the 

 insects fly about whilst burdened with the plant. 

 Upon opening the bodies of the wasps they are found 

 filled with the mycelium of the fungus, up to the 

 orbits of the eyes and the points of the tarsi, the 

 whole of the intestines being obliterated. In such 

 cases it is to be supposed that the mycelium of the 



