106 MEANDER INGSON THE 



gales that destroy and strip away all the honours 

 of its neighbours. This circumstance enables us to 

 observe a curious, strongly defined line upon the 

 leaves, like a glossy whitish film, meandering over 

 the surface, becoming progressively larger, with a 

 fine intestinal-like line running through the centre. 

 (Plate 3 Fig. 3.) What occasioned this sinuous 

 path long puzzled me satisfactorily to ascertain, con- 

 sidering it entirely of vegetable origin ; and all the 

 various polymorphous parasitics were successively 

 thought of. At one time I deemed it like puccinia, 

 which vegetates beneath the cuticle of leaves : but 

 this was rejected ; and probably I might long have 

 wandered in error, had not the Rev. Mr. Kirby 

 dissipated all my conjectures by informing me that 

 it was the pathway of a small caterpillar. There 

 are several species of them, which are placed by 

 Reaumur in a tribe called l( mineuses," all of which 

 live upon the parenchyma, or pulpy substance found 

 between the cuticles or skins of leaves, gradually 

 increasing in size until matured for transformation 

 to the chrysalis, when they eat their way through 

 the leaf, ultimately becoming moths, remarkable for 

 the brilliant metallic lustre of their wings, the fine 

 central line being therejectments of the creature in 

 the infant stages of its growth. Though several 

 plants afford sustenance to these races, we have 

 none on which this tortuous path is more strongly 

 defined than the leaves of brambles, and the ever- 



