CH. XVIII.] PARASITICAL INSECTS, ETC. 263 



fore the insect is about to change, the fungus dries 

 and falls off. Messrs. Kirby and Spence mention 

 one of this genus in their cabinet, " with a kind of 

 Sphaeria with a twisted thickish stipes and oblong 

 head, springing up in the space between the eyes." 

 Dr. Hill says, in speaking of the cicada, " This 

 you may be assured is the fact, and all the fact, 

 though the untaught inhabitants suppose a fly to 

 vegetate ; and though there exists a Spanish draw- 

 ing of the plants growing into a perfoliate tree, and 

 it has been figured with the creature flying with 

 this tree upon its back." 



"So wild are the imaginations of man, 

 So chaste and uniform is nature." 



Some imago specimens of lepidopterous insects 

 have been brought from the tropical regions, cover- 

 ed with long slender filaments. They are always 

 in a very decayed state. In China is found a 

 geometrical larva, which has a long, rather thick 

 stem, growing from the head ; this is about two 

 inches and a quarter long, while the insect itself is 

 not quite one inch and a half in length. Father 

 Parenin, who sent it to France, observes, in his ac- 

 count of it, that it was a scarce plant ; being found 

 only at the palace of Pekin there, where also it 

 was not a native, but brought from the mountains 

 of Tibet, and some other places on the confines of 

 the Chinese dominions. This father had never 

 seen the leaves or flowers of the plant, but only its 

 roots, which were in high esteem there, not only 

 because of their miraculous changes, but from their 

 possessing the virtues of the ginseng. This plant, 

 we are informed, is still in great estimation by the 

 Chinese nobles. The roots had nothing particular 

 in their figure or appearance ; but with these the 

 father sent home those which were supposed to be 

 changed into a worm, for which they are called 

 hiatsiotonetcheon, that is to say, a plant which, at 



