E.NTOZOICAL FUiNGt. 155 



thus called by Hooker, 1 believe, in honor of JMr. Roberts, who brought 

 it to England from that country. There are several other sj)ecinien.s in 

 the Collection of the National Institute at Washington, to which they 

 were presented by a gentleman who procured them in New Zealand. 

 There is a fine figure of it, and a description of the plant in vol. 2 of 

 Hooker's Icones Plantarum, which I will here introduce for the benefit 

 of the botanical reader. 



'■'•Sphaeria Robertsl ; nigra, suberosa, stipete elongato, flexuoso, sim- 

 plice, (vel ramoso) capitulo elongato, acuminato, vermiculiformi. Ha- 

 bitat New Zealand." 



It appears that there are two genera of fungi growing in this remark- 

 able situation, Isaria and Sphaeria. Several of their species are invaria- 

 bly found on dead insects in different stages of their existence, as larva., 

 pupa and imago. Tliey are found no where else, and this single extra- 

 ordinary fact would furnish abundant material for a volume of specula- 

 tion on the original creation of plants and animals. 



The phenomenon seems to be rather common, for it has been observ- 

 ed by many persons, and may be witnessed every spring in our meadows. 



An interesting question is, do these animals live after the fungi have 

 grown out of their bodies, or does the vegetable life as soon as it is de- 

 veloped exhaust the animal life of tlie insect ? I think not. Dr. Madi- 

 ana, of Guadeloupe, says "he has noticed the gmpc vegetal living with 

 its incumbrance attached to it, though apparently in the last stage of its 

 existence and seeming about to perish from the influence of its destruc- 

 tive parasite." A German traveller in the West Indies, mentions, hav- 

 ing seen what was probably the same species living, but instead of de- 

 scribing the animal, he wrote some pretty verses about it His poetry 

 could have been better spared than a faithful description of the insect 

 bearing in its bodv a thriving plant. I should judge from analogy that 

 these animals can live with this vegetable excrescence protruding from 

 thein. We know that caterpillars live, flourish, and even assume the 

 chrysalis form, with mimerons larvae of ichneumons feeding on them in- 

 ternally, and surely their depradations must be more exhausting than a 

 mere vegetable growth. But I have no doubt that all the larvae thus en- 

 cumbered eventually die in consequence of it, and that the lives of per- 

 fect insects on which they are found, are shortened by it. 



The great wonder of all is, how the seeds of these fungi arc depos- 

 ited always on these insects — how they take root, and why these spe- 

 cies are never found in any other situation ! But nature is full of inex- 

 plicable mysteries, and where we cannot ahva\.-< (;xi)hiin, it is good to 

 adore. 



