xii.] NEW DISEASE OF GRASS. 65 



scratching about for the truffles. There is a kind of race 

 then between the mammal and the mycelium for the 

 underground fungus. 



Botanists, who search for truffles always know where 

 the Elaphomyces is to be found by looking for the spawn 

 of the Torrubia on the moss. The spawn-covered moss 

 points out the position of the truffle, as surely as the 

 bird named the Great Honey Guide, Indicator major, 

 Steph., leads hunters to bees' nests in Africa. 



A closely allied species of Torrubia, named T. militaris, 

 Tul. (in the older books Cordiceps or Sphceria), of bright 

 scarlet colour, is extremely common in Britain in the 

 autumn and early winter, growing from dead pupae buried 

 in the ground. The fungus resembles a scarlet club, 

 about an inch or an inch and a half high. It grows in 

 pastures and grassy places, where larvae have buried them- 

 selves. The mycelium grows within the body of the 

 pupa, and the scarlet club commonly grows from the first 

 joint behind the head. The anatomical characters of T. 

 militaris, Tul., agree generally with T. ophioglossoides, Tul. 

 The Isaria disease possesses considerable interest on 

 account of the popular belief that it is capable of greatly 

 injuring, and indeed of killing the cattle that feed upon the 

 grass infected with it. In September 1880 an instance 

 occurred where two cows died in an Jsarm-infected dis- 

 trict from an affection of the lungs ; and when a post- 

 mortem examination was made it was found that the lungs 

 were covered with a fungus-like growth, not unlike, it is 

 said, the appearance presented by the throat in diphtheria. 

 The veterinary surgeon who conducted the examination 

 declared his opinion that the fatal ailment had been con- 

 tracted from the /sano-infected grass. The same medical 

 practitioner is said to have fed two rabbits on infected 

 grass only, and that they both died therefrom. It is, 

 perhaps, unnecessary to say, that these cases are far from 

 being proved. At the same time, it would not be wise to 

 immediately say that such cases are impossible. In favour 



