92 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



terribly afflicted by a parasitic fungus. Accord- 

 ing- to Dr. Carpenter, it is not at all unusual in 

 the West Indies to see wasps (genus PoUstes) 

 Hying about with plants of their own length 

 projecting from their bodies. In our last num- 

 ber (page 77) we referred to a parasitic plant 

 growing from the mouth of the common "White 

 Grub, ^^'llich is apparently the same fungoid 

 growth spoken of three years ago by Dr. Kirt- 

 land of Ohio as being well known to science.* 

 In further illustration of this very curious sub- 

 ject, we annex here a communication from a 

 Virginian gentleman, Mr. Sam. H. Y. Early, 

 with which we have been favored thi'ough the 

 good offices of that distinguished entomologist, 

 Wm. H. Edwards. 



"There is a white mushroom known in the 

 region in which I was raised, as iioisonous and 

 fatal to the hogs that feed on it. I believe it is 

 common inall localities in which I have been. In 

 the spring of 1842 I observed in what is called 

 a "new ground" in Virginia a great quantity 

 of these mushrooms, and in reply to some re- 

 mark I made about them, some of my father's 

 negroes, v.iio were then making hills with hoes 

 for planting tobacco, inquired of me if I knew 

 what produced these mushrooms. On my re- 

 plying in the negative, I v.-as infoi-mcd that they 

 grew from the white grub worm. I think there 

 were some twelve or fifteen negroes present, all 

 of whom concurred in the statement, and said it 

 was no new thing to them. They had no difficulty 

 in establisliing the truth of what they stated, be- 

 cause they dug them up in all their stages of 

 germination and growth before my own eyes. 

 In a very short time they had furnished me with 

 a large number of the worms in their original 

 shape features and size, and as distinct to the 

 eye as if they had been alive, but having the 

 consistency, color and smell of a mushroom ; and 

 I actually broke them up, just as a mushroom 

 breaks in one's hands, snapping them crosswise 

 and squai-ely off. Many others I found to be en- 

 larged before germinating, and many just germ- 

 inating, but with the shape of the worm pre- 

 served. And in some I noticed that the features 

 of the worm were preserved in the root, even 

 after the mushroom had grown up through the 

 earth and attained some size. I gathered a 

 good many specimens in their various stages 

 into my handkerchief, and carried them to my 

 father's house, where they lay on the mantel for 

 some time. They seemed, however, to be no 

 novelty to many to whom I exhibited them. In 

 fact they were familiar to almost all who had 



opportunities of investigation, and to whom I 

 mentioned them at the time.'* 



In the Missouri specimen referred to in our 

 last number, there were said to be " two sprouii 

 of green vegetable growth, growing out of the 

 head of the grub, one on either side, of nearly 

 half an inch in length, and resembling a hog's 

 tusk in shape." In the Iowa specimen referred 

 to in the second volume of the Practical Entom- 

 oloffist, page IIG*, which is now lying before us, 

 one sprout is over an inch long, and the other is 

 scarcely one-tenth of an inch long, and both, as 

 in the Missouri specimen, were when fresh of a 

 green color and took their origin one from each 

 corner of the mouth. The most remarkable 

 thing is that in Iowa, according to Mr. Gilbert 

 who forwarded the specimen, " there were large 

 numbers of such specimens turned up by the 

 plow, and the root came from the worm in ex- 

 actly the same part of the body in all." Hence 

 it is reasonable to infer that the mushroom ori- 

 ginates inside the body of the insect, and being 

 unable to make its way through the skin pushes 

 a path for itself through the aperture of the 

 mouth. We presume there can be little doubt 

 as to the identity of tlie Iowa and Missouri 

 spec-inicn^. and the la-obable identity with these 

 of the iiiuii('rou> ^iicciiiicns in Virginia so gra- 

 phically dc-nibcd ],y Mr. Early. 



* Pi-iiiua by mistake ai ' 'jiage 16' ' in A. K. p. 77. 



PLUMS FOR THE MILLION. 



We have shown, in preceding articles, how 

 professional fruit-growers may raise good crops 

 of plums, of any desirable variety suited to their 

 locality: first, by frequently jarring their trees 

 and destroying the Curculios that fall therefrom ; 

 and, secondh', by allowing hogs the range of 

 their orchards, so as to get rid of all the wormy 

 fruit as fast as it falls, and thus nip the evil in 

 the bud. 



But for the unprofessional cultivator, who has 

 only a few fruit trees growing in his garden, 

 both the above methods are, as a general rule, 

 impracticable. It is as much trouble to prepare 

 for jari'ing a single plum-tree as for jarring a 

 hundred, and as to allowing hogs the run of a 

 garden, that of course is out of the question. 



Luckily, however, for those who wish to cul- 

 tivate plums on a small scale, there are two 

 varieties which, though not of the finest quality, 

 may yet be successfully grown without any 

 special attention to fighting the curculio. The 

 first of these is the Columbia plum, a variety of 

 the European species {Prunus domestica) . The 

 second is the Miner plum, otherwise known as 



