176 ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 



without a metaphor, " become one flesh," enough to 

 make a Malthusian despair of the future of the Universe. 



I am not aware that the investigators from whom 

 I have borrowed this history have endeavoured to ascer- 

 tain whether their monads take solid nutriment or not ; 

 so that though they help us very much to fill up the 

 blanks in the history of my Ileteromita, their observa- 

 tions throw no light on the problem we are trying to 

 solve Is it an animal or is it a plant ? 



Undoubtedly it is possible to bring forward very 

 strong arguments in favour of regarding Heteromita as a 

 plant. 



For example, there is a Fungus, an obscure and 

 almost microscopic mould, termed Peronospora infes- 

 tans. Like many other Fungi, the Peronospora are 

 parasitic upon other plants ; and this particular Perono- 

 spora happens to have attained much notoriety and po- 

 litical importance, in a way not without a parallel in the 

 career of notorious politicians, namely, by reason of the 

 frightful mischief it has done to mankind. For it is this 

 Fungus which is the cause of the potato disease ; and, 

 therefore, Peronospora infestans (doubtless of exclu- 

 sively Saxon origin, though not accurately known to be 

 so) brought about the Irish famine. The plants afflicted 

 with the malady are found to be infested by a mould, 

 consisting of fine tubular filaments, termed hyphce, which 

 burrow through the substance of the potato plant, and 

 appropriate to themselves the substance of their host; 

 while, at the same time, directly or indirectly, they set 



