WALKING-STICKS AND WALKING-LEAVES. 73 



own." This bald statement he gravely gives in more 

 elaborate guise: "The Insect, when it has found its 

 proper Tree of Nourishment, lays its eggs separately in 

 the Buds of it, which hatch when the Buds begin to 

 shoot ; the Insect then is nourished by the Juices of the 

 Tree, and grows together with the Leaves till all its 

 Body is perfected ; and at the Fall of the Leaf, drops 

 from the Tree with the Leaves growing to its Body like 

 Wings, and then walks about ; this is not common 

 enough with us to be easily believed, and what I should 

 not have ventured to mention in this place, if the Insects 

 themselves were not to be met with in the curious 

 Cabinets of our own Country. 



" What I account the most curious point belonging to 

 this Relation is, That the Sap of any Tree should be so 

 naturally adapted to maintain at once both Vegetable 

 and Animal Life ; and by that means to unite the Parts 

 of two Beings, so distinct from one another as Plants 

 and Animals, and circulate the same Juices equally in 

 the Vessels of both. . . . That a Leaf of a Plant should 

 so unite itself with an Insect as to make one distinct 

 living Body is wonderful." 



All one can say is, the remarkable appearance of the 

 insects affords some excuse for the absurdities of this 

 romantic story. 



Somewhat more than a century later, the eggs of one 

 of these insects were introduced from India to Edinburgh, 



