1859.] OAK-LEAP FUNGUS. 17 



angulare, and Scolopendrium vulgare, which appears to be the 

 most generally distributed Fern upon the island ; and near to 

 Ronde-Porte Cottage, Lastrea dilatata, Athyrium Filix-foemma. 



OAK-LEAF FUNGUS; OR PEOPEELY, OAK-LEAF SPANGLES. 



By S. B. 



I have again examined an oak-leaf with these objects o\x it, 

 and I found that under almost all the spangles there was a 

 small amber-coloured grub. The leaves I examined last autumn 

 were much older, and as there were no grubs in them, I con- 

 clude that the process of insect-transformation had taken place, 

 and the spangles vacated by their late occupants. Mr. Jerdan's 

 answer to my note therefore appears to be correct. The Fungi 

 I first observed in the vacated spangle were, I expect, perform- 

 ing the work of decomposition, acting like " Death's decaying 

 fingers.'' 



I have lately been much interested in the examination of the 

 leaves of the Viburnum Opulus, which I found covered with small 

 amber-coloured spots, giving off a peculiar odour, like the smell of 

 pigs or turmeric, I also found the same on the leaves of other 

 plants. This smell I had often noticed in walking by hedge- 

 rows in the autumn, but never till now did I learn its source. 



The parasites of Oak and other trees, both animal and vege- 

 table, are numerous, and a description of them would fill a vo- 

 lume. I would however recommend your readers to carry a 

 powerful lens, and use it in the examination of every object they 

 meet with on the leaves of trees, with a view of ascertaining 

 more of this minute world of creation. There is much truth in 

 what the author of the ' Journal of a Naturalist ' tells us in p. 120, 

 etc. : " As in the animal world, after disease or violence has 

 extinguished life, the dispersion is accomplished by the agency 

 principally of other animals or animated creatures, so in the 

 vegetable world, vegetating substances usually effect the entire 

 decomposition. Fungi in general, particularly those arranged 

 as Sph(Bria, Trichia, Peziza, and Boletus, appear as the principal 

 and most numerous agents ; and we find them almost univer- 

 sally on substances in a certain state of decay or approximation 



N.S. VOL. III. D 



