76 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



erring than the practised eye of the botanist, she re- 

 cognizes the plant the moment she approaches it.'* 

 And again, they talk of the c unerring foresight with 

 which the female deposits her eggs in the precise 

 place where the larvae when excluded are sure to find 

 suitable food.'t This unconditional position requires 

 however, to be considerably modified to make it cor- 

 respond with the facts. The experiment we gave from 

 Redi in our first chapter, in which the carnivorous 

 flies laid their eggs on the silk and paper covering 

 tainted meat, will occur to every reader as one striking 

 exception; and we can mention several others still 

 more marked. When Dr Arnold discovered that 

 most singular parasitic plant, the krubut, of Sumatra, 

 (Rafflesia Jlrnoldii, BROWN,) which consists of a 

 flower only, without leaf or stem, and of the extra- 

 ordinary diameter of three feet, he perceived a swarm 

 of flies hovering over the nectary, an?, apparently 

 laying their eggs in its substance, mistaking it most 

 probably for carrion, as it smelt like tainted beef.J 

 A similar mistake is committed in ,ur own country, 

 when the cc union blow-fly (Muse/, vom'toria) lays 

 its eggs in c cetid funguses (Phalli, Agarici, &c), 

 apparently ; -er the .notion that these are genuine 

 carrion. This may be more particularly observed 

 on the singular class of plants, stapelias, which are 

 so common in our hot-houses: whole families of mag- 

 gots are constantly born to starve in their foetid flowers. 

 These are instances of the mistakes of instinct in 

 circumstances where it depends upon the information 

 of the senses ; and similar mistakes frequently occur 

 where the higher powers of human rationality are 

 deceived by analogous phenomena. The fine nutty- 

 flavour of cherry laurel water and of prussic acid 



* Introd. i, p. 340. t Ibid, iii,.p. 65. 



$ R. Brown, Linn. Trans, vol. xiii. $ Smellie, Philos. of 

 Nat. Hist. 



