234 FOOTNOTES FROM 



which case it may pass through its metamorphosis into the 

 imago state, and become a butterfly or a moth, with the 

 lower portion of its body rilled with a mass of fungoid 

 substance as above described. 



But it is not only insects, and other creatures of in- 

 ferior organization in the larva state, that are thus 

 subject to the attacks of parasitic fungi. They even 

 enter the water an element in which they are seldom 

 found, and where they always refuse to develop them- 

 selves normally and prey upon gold fishes and other 

 scaly tenants of the deep. The Achyla prolifera is one 

 of the most remarkable of these fungi. Every oue who 

 has kept gold-fishes must be familiar with this great 

 enemy of his favourites. It consists of numerous trans- 

 parent threads of extreme fineness, packed together as 

 closely as the pile of velvet, adhering to the surface 

 of the fishes, and covering them as it were with a 

 whitish slime. This appearance is generally regarded 

 as a kind of decay or consumption in the animals them- 

 selves, and not as an external clothing of parasitic plants. 

 It is, however, a true vegetable growth, as is evident 

 when it is placed under the microscope, for the unassisted 

 eye can perceive nothing of its true structure ; each 

 filament being terminated by a pear-shaped ball, about 

 the Y^^JTJ- th of an inch in diameter, and consisting of a 

 single cell filled with a mucilaginous fluid, in which 

 float the reproductive granules. " The contents of this 

 cell are seen to be in constant motion from the earliest 

 stage of their existence ; but as they advance to 

 maturity, the mucilage disappears, and the motion of the 

 granules becomes more rapid and violent, till ultimately 



