THE- AMERICAN BOTANIST 157 



meadowlark we would further inquire whether, in view of his 

 meditating the destruction of grain in South Carolina, it 

 would not be wise and patriotic to shoot him before he has a 

 chance to make the Southward journey. Our Northern pot 

 hunters would be more than willing to oblige; why pick on 



South Carolina? 



* * * 



In a press bulletin purporting to be sent out by the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society of Washington, we find it stated 

 that in New Zealand "there is a caterpillar which dies but to 

 live again in the form of a plant which blossoms and goes to 

 seed." This is another excellent illustration of "newspaper 

 science," sometimes called by jealous botanists in other parts 

 of the world "Washington Science." It is absurd to suppose 

 that animals can turn into plants, barring such instances as 

 cows being turned into the corn or pigs turned into clover. 

 The slight basis of fact upon which the caterpillar article is 

 built is simply this : certain fungi — not "plants which blossom 

 and go to seed" — are noted for growing in the bodies of insect 

 larvae. When once located in the living insect the plant body 

 known as a sclerotium gradually takes the form of the insect 

 and ultimately kills it. Later it sends up a spore-bearing 

 structure to the surface and scatters its spores to the winds. 

 But no insect ever becomes a plant. 



* * * 



A writer in Park's Floral Magazine for November refers 

 to the common barberry as follows : "The common barberry 

 was harmful to our national economy for it was the favorite 

 harbor of the rusts which are. so destructive to our grain 

 crops. These experts tell us that to complete the cycle of its 

 life from Qgg to moth, the organism responsible for the stem 

 rust of wheat, oats, and barley must pass part of its life cycle 

 in the common barberry bush." Probably this was not writ- 

 ten by a government expert. Such persons, at least, ought to 

 know that no rust can grow up to be a moth, but it sounds 



