30 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



to try whether this supposed seed would grow if 

 sown on vegetable substances, and found that it did 

 so. On his experiments being; repeated at Bologna, 

 however, it was discovered that the mould grew 

 equally well where none of the black powder had 

 been sown ; but Spallanzani, by more accurate at- 

 tention, confirmed the conclusion of Micheli. He 

 collected a great quantity of the dust, and, taking a 

 number of pieces of moistened bread, apples, pears, 

 gourds, &c., sowed some thickly, others sparingly, 

 and others not at all. The result was, that on the 

 unsown substances the mould did appear, but several 

 days later, and then greatly less in quantity, than on 

 the sown substances ; while of these two, the pieces 

 thickly sown had more than double the quantity of 

 the pieces thinly sown, though, when it came up 

 thick, it did not grow so tall. 



Blicroscopic views of apple and pear mould. A A, Part of a 

 shrivelled apple, covered with mould on the inside, aaaat 

 several of tlie individual mould plants highly magnified, b, a 

 branched one. c d, seed-vessels, one bursting and scattering 

 its seed, e, one mushroom-shaped. /, a portion of pear mould, 

 of a branched form. 



We were much struck last autumn (1829), upon 

 cutting an apple asunder, to find in the seed-cells a 



