200 REMARKS ON SPH.ERIA UOBERTSI AND S. SINENSIS. 



in growth, until it may be left off altogether ; then remove to tlie green- 

 house, pot them off the following March into thumb pots, well drained, 

 using peat mould and sand in equal quantities ; place them in a cold 

 frame until rooted ; during summer, top any long shoot, and by the 

 autumn you will have snug bushy plants, producing in spring beautiful 

 pendant blossoms. 



Corrcea Speciosa, S^-c. — May be increased by cuttings potted early 

 in February or March, but the quickest method is by inarching upon 

 Corrffia alba, any time from February to July, and if the plants can 

 have the advantage of a stove lieat, the better, as tiie inarciied shoot 

 will have united in the course of eight or ten weeks ; it may then be 

 cut off, care being taken not to disturb the shoot inarched, but by no 

 means head off the stock at present ; place them in a cold frame, keep 

 them close and shade for a fortniglit ; expose them to the air by degrees, 

 and when tiie inarched shoot has recovered begins to grow again, then 

 head off the stock ; loosen tlie ligature that was bound round tiie plant, 

 otherwise it will cut; bind a fresii piece of bass loosely round the plant 

 at the union, lie the plant up to a neat stick in case of accident, remove 

 the plants to an airy part of the greenhouse, attend to water, and in the 

 spring you will have a bushy plant covered with handsome blossoms. 

 I have not mentioned the mode of inarcliing, thinking it not necessary ; 

 as almost all persons liaving any knowledge of plants must know tiie 

 process. — The Propagator in a London Nursery, 



REMARKS ON SPHiERIA ROBERTSI AND S. SINENSIS. 



BY MR, SHOUT, OF STKANWILLIS, NEAR BELFAST. 



Perhaps in the vegetable world tliere are no two plants more extraor- 

 dinary than tiie above, and i*i.\s created a greater sensation tlian they. 

 It matters not whetiier we take their remarkable formation or the 

 manner in which they grow (from the head of a caterpillar), botii are 

 equal objects of wonder. 



Sph^ria Robertsi, attains a length of from six to sixteen inches, 

 tlie colour being dark broun, and its structure iiard, with an elongated 

 stipe, whicli, though simple in all tiie specimens yet examined, presents 

 an appearance of being occasionally branclied. The capitulum or 

 head is elongated, acuminate, vermiform. The root of tlie fungus is 

 embedded in the head of the caterpillar. 



Some specimens in my collection* have two stipes growing out of the 

 head of tlie same caterpillar, one witli a perfect capitulum, tlie otlier 

 decayed or wanting ; in otiier specimens the embryo of a third is 

 visible. In some tlie stipe is branclied, as if a second capitulum had 

 been formed, and one specimen presents a double capitulum, which is 

 a rare occurrence. 



The Lepidopterous insect, on whose larvae this fungus grows, is not 



* The collection of Sphterias exhibited by Mr. Short at the Royal Botanic 

 Society's Gardens, Belfast, is allowed to be the largest and finest in Eui'ope. — Ed. 



