CURIOUS FUNGUS. 41 



larly fond of such shady retired spots. Whenever 

 I saw these little creatures buzzing round a flower, 

 with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be 

 scarcely visible, I was reminded of the sphinx 

 moths : their movements and habits are indeed in 

 many respects very similar. 



Following a pathway I entered a noble forest, 

 and from a height of five or six hundred feet, one 

 of those splendid views was presented, which are 

 so common on every side of Rio. At this eleva- 

 tion the landscape attains its most brilliant tint ; 

 and every form, every shade, so completely sur- 

 passes in magnificence all that the European has 

 ever beheld in his own country, that he knows not 

 how to express his feelings. The general effect 

 fi-equently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery 

 of the Opera-house or the great theatres. I never 

 returned from these . excursions empty handed. 

 This day I found a specimen of a curious fungus, 

 called Hymenophallus. Most people know the 

 English Phallus, which in autumn taints the air 

 with its odious smell : this, however, as the ento- 

 mologist is aware, is to some of our beetles a de- 

 lightful fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongy- 

 lus, attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus 

 as I cari'ied it in my hand. We here see in two 

 distant countries a similar relation between plants 

 and insects of the same families, though the species 

 of both are different. When man is the agent in 

 introducing into a country a new species, this rela- 

 tion is often broken : as one instance of this I may 

 mention, that the leaves of the cabbages and let- 

 tuces, which in England afford food to such a mul- 

 titude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near 

 Rio are untouched. 



During our stay at Brazil I made a large collec- 

 tion of insects. A few general observations on the 

 D2 



