A PARASITE ON A PARASITE 



We have a most valued correspondent in New Zealand, Mr. H. 

 Hill, Napier, who sends us fine collections of the curious Cordyceps 

 Robertsii, which seems frequent in this country. This Cordyceps is 

 a parasite on a large larva, killing its host, and flourishing at the 

 expense of the animal tissue. 



We gave an account and photograph of it in our Cordyceps of 

 Australasia, page 5, figure 616. In a fine collection recently received 

 of this Cordyceps, we noticed two clubs that were infected by some 

 parasitic, fungal species. This is a section of mycology about which 

 we know little, but we were curious to know its nature and examined 

 "au microscope." It is strange, but we found it to have exactly the 

 same spores as the Cordyceps has, and would be classed in the same 

 section as Cordyceps, viz., the genus Ophionectria, at least according 

 to key characters, although the perithecia are not "bright-colored." 

 For convenience in our museum we have 

 labeled it Ophionectria Cordyceps. 



Mr. Seaver, to whom we sent a portion 

 of a specimen, suggests the possibility of the 

 Cordyceps having produced a second crop of 

 perithecia on an old fruiting club. W T e hardly 

 think this is an explanation for the second layer 

 of perithecia are only produced where the club 

 is diseased, and the greater part of each infected 

 Cordyceps club is not diseased and has normal 

 perithecia. 



We present a photograph of a portion of 

 the Cordyceps club (enlarged) bearing the 

 Ophionectria. This parasite seems to abort 

 the perithecia of the Cordyceps and produces 

 its own perithecia which have the same spores. 

 Fig 1035 ^ n ^ act) ^ ' ls a kind of a vegetable cuckoo. 



A parasite growing on another parasite 

 illustrates the old rhyme: 



"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, 



And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum, 



And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; 



\\hile these again have greater still and greater still, and so on." 



De Morgan: A Budget of Paradoxes. 



NEW SPECIES 



I hope my readers will not infer from my publications that I 

 have degenerated into a "new species" hunter. I get so many plants 

 from regions where there have been but little collected, and so many 

 species unknown to me come in, that there is nothing for me to do 

 but to either give them a name or pile them up unnamed in our 

 museum. I have been pursuing the latter course so long that my 

 museum is becoming clogged with unnamed plants. Of the two evils 

 I think the former is preferable, although I have not much idea that 

 it will be of much practical service, excepting in my own collection 

 and to my correspondents. 



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