Fesrvary 26, 1887.1 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
289 
spores, attacks the living caterpillar whilst it is 
b round. e spores usually attack 
the joi a é к of the neck, as this 
is the easiest and most vulnerable point for assault. 
The ca mila vis burying itself (that it may 
hibernate in th nd a chrysalis before it 
becomes ANE ы s head backwards and 
forwards in its efforts et its ath 
gate of'a citadel) makes its way and there ger- 
minates. 
On germination the mycelium or spawn from the 
spawn. As ater- 
pillar becomes gradually transformed to o mpact 
fungoid 8 losed by a caterpillar's skin, the 
perfect fu emerges from the k of w 
hs the spores are 
orne in ow closed ovoid cases, pouches, or 
perithec 
On lockt рыс at the illustration it will be 
seen that the antler-like growth 
cracks from the apex or side, as shown in the illus- 
tration. 
It is now with the aid of the highest powers of the 
microscope that we really see the truly wonderful 
meme of the fungus, for if m jake, say, a couple of 
Seen as аір. Тһе attenuated object before us Ed seen 
now t orthread, 
inconceivably fine as it really is, for on close examina 
tion it will be found full of the most minute joints, 
pouches investing the out tside of the 
анель growths, each bladder then sails about in 
the air, opens at the top, and discharges in the atmo- 
sphere eight of the attenuated threads just described. 
The threads in turn now break up into definite sized 
fragments of microscopic liv ving dust, and these 
minute grains of transparent living material fal 
the ground in order to grow upon and destroy living 
Australian caterpillars whilst:in i act of becomi ing 
chrysalids, 
Such minute objects as these spores obviously 
could hardly vag the armour plates of any 
cate force an en 3 эма 
Денни: should be £a 
stroyed Ъу nii — of a fungus-spore so 
extremely min 
It only remains : io say that the antler-like parts of 
the fungus growth are solid, and cinereous-black in 
о 
о 
=з 
Several species of Cordyceps grow in this country, 
Fig. 62.—CORDYCEPS TAYLORI, A FUNGUS PARASITIC ОХ 
ie ATERPILLARS. 
but perhaps none so remarkable as Cordyceps 
Robertsii. Cordyceps re tn was illustrated and 
described in the Gardene e for February 8, 
1873, odi 
‚ (Sphæ ча)! — was illus ehe ы 
th Chronicle for March 6, 1875; this 
ud is сеа and highly esteemed by the hinges 
as stuffing fo: en is sold in neat bundles 
in Chin t 
= 
` The famous vegetable caterpillar, or — of 
New Zealand, is C. Robertsii. It is а imple un 
branched club, se is parasitic upon the магына? of 
Hepialus virescens. A small 
The example of Cordyceps Taylori here illustrated 
has been deposited in the De 
Kensington has till now had noexample. My thanks 
are due to Mr. George } Murray of the British Museum 
for obligingly кы me the reference to, and trans- 
cript from, rkeley's original description in the 
London ont of Botany. Worthington G, Smith, 
Dunstable. 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE, 
HE ORA OF ICELAND.—I have read with 
heads e capital articles upon this 
p subject 
ich appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle: of 
December 18 d 7 d also in your las 
issue, and desire to add a word or two respecting 
[n observations in Eastern Icel in the 
au 5 have ed t he so 
lled “ forest ” of Hallormstadr several times almost 
deme end, an idedly of th 
portion not twice, I 
t with Mountain Ash bushes on small trees) 
in oes dion: hood fiss 
of rock; 
2 
2 5" 
м. 
B 
я ras octopetala or Rüpa Lof is 
abundant everywhere, and forms in hard winters 
almost the sole food of the ptarmi (Lagopus 
rupestris, 1.), hence the Icelandic mee Mr. 
Wight's — (p.946), that the use 
octopetala leaves for n" —— is now айе is 
not perfectly:correct meant to include the whole 
of ind, for when at Hallormstadr we we 
some tea which had been scii from the leaves 
of various kinds of plants growing in the vicinity, 
and amon m we understood that Dryas played an 
import vct ame district I found that 
the fruit pet gr onsidered quit 
tive uncertainty of the crops. J. 
Fork. 
N TOWERS.— By “ 
Towers published on the 
inded of the 
Н. E.’s” пості. of 
19th instant, one 
gene 
comments, which were 'sometim 
de : 
ad it 
direct eur n tributions = the river 
rwent, а suficiently higher point. rry it 
over the ЫП to an uate rece ivious of 
the Duke of Devonshire чүн not o rty 
from which this resource was to -— or the 
intermediate land which it woul ire to 
rdin: атша the whole 
face of the country, and en prodigious out- 
lay. As to ers, however, there can be 
was right, an a as he 
› the operations of the active Earl of that day 
