BOTANICAL: THE LOWER ORDERS. 133 



the fungus, filling the animal's body, burst through the 

 tldn wall that concealed it, forming that ring which en- 

 circled the victim. This Empusa muscte, as botanists call 

 it, is one of the poorer classes, in the lower orders, that is, 

 of vegetable life a parasite, that loves to feed at the 

 expense of the common house-fly. So rapid is the growth 

 of some of the members of this family, that 4000 millions 

 of them are produced in one hour, each one, though a 

 simple and invisible cell, being a perfect plant. 



You will be much interested during the autumn if 

 you look out for this, our first illustration, upon the glass 

 panes of your house windows. You will find the dead 

 body of our friend so friable when you touch it that it 

 will immediately crumble into dust, and yet, just before 

 you do so, you will scarcely believe in its death it so 

 retains the attitude of life. You will observe that, 

 unlike dead insects, who usually draw up their legs just 

 before dying, crossing them beneath their bodies, the fly 

 you are looking upon is supported upon its outstretched 

 legs, its feet retaining their adhesive property in the 

 exercise of the peculiar suckers with which this class of 

 insects is able to hold on to glass; and, most remarkable, 

 the wonderful tongue, to which your attention was directed 

 just now, is extended, the empty shell being fastened to 

 the window beneath it. The halo of whitish dust surround- 

 ing the body is composed of the spores of the fungus, 

 which have so burst through the abdomen of the fly that 

 the rings composing it are actually separated from each 

 other with such force did these curious things, with 

 their united strength, release themselves. This dust 

 which surrounds the body, with the aid of the microscope 

 is found to be a true mould, and a fair specimen of that 

 large class of unicellular plants to which so much atten- 

 tion is now being directed in the scientific world in 



