110 



THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST 



Natural 

 Liliaceje 



Order. 



Fluviales 

 Restiacese 

 GramineEe 



Filices 



Species. 

 Burchardia umbellata 

 Csesia parviflora ; C. vittata. 

 Bulbine bulbosa 

 Xerotes thunbergi 

 Chamrescilla corymbosa. 

 Dianella revoluta. 

 Xanthoi-rhoea australis. 

 Wurmbea dioica. 

 Potamogeton sp. 

 Calostrophus fastigiatus. 

 Briza media. 

 Stipa sp. 

 Carex sp. 

 Bromus sp. 



Adiantum ethiopicum ; A. diaphanum. 

 Asplenium bulbiferum ; A. marinum 



umbrosum. 

 Aspidium capense ; A. hispidum ; A. molle. 

 Blechnum cartilagineum. 

 Cyathea boylei. 

 Davallia pyxidata. 

 Dicksonia antarctica. 

 Doodia aspera ; D. caudata. 

 Gleichenia dicarpa ; G. flabellata. 

 Lomaria alpina ; L. discolor ; L. patersoni. 

 Polypodium punctatum ; P. pustulatum ; P. scandens. 

 Pteris tremula ; P. umbrosa. 

 Todea barbara. 

 Cheilanthes tenuifolia. 



(All cultivated.) 



A. nidus ; A. 



THE NEW ZEALAND VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR. 



By Thos. Steel, Yarraville. 



( Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i ithNbv., 1890.^ 



The remarkable organism commonly known as the New Zealand 

 Vegetable Caterpillar, which at first sight, as its popular name 

 implies, appears to present the anomaly of a combination of the 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms in one individual, hai naturally 

 long been an object of interest. A great deal of misapprehen- 

 sion exists as to the real nature of this organism, and from time 

 to time more or less erroneous statements regarding it arc 

 published. When we come to look more closely into the matter, 

 we find that the Vegetable Caterpillar is but an example of a 

 widely diffused type of entomogenous fungi. Examining a 

 specimen carefully, it will be seen to consist of what is obviously 

 a caterpillar having projecting from its body a slender spear-like 

 growth, tipped with a brown crust of spore-vessels. 



In those parts of New Zealand where the organism is found, 

 the ends of the spikes are to be seen, about the month of March, 

 projecting above the ground in sheltered places. 



The caterpillar is that of a handsome bright green moth, 



