364 General Notes. | May, 
scribes as belonging to a genus and species new to science, and 
which he names Massospora cycadina, develops in the abdomen of 
the insect, and consists almost wholly of a mass of pale yellowish 
or clay colored spores, having the appearance to the naked eye of 
a lump of whitish clay. Though the insect is not killed at once 
by the parasite, it is manifestly incapacitated for propagation, and 
thence the fungus may be said to prevent, to some extent, the 
injury that would otherwise be inflicted upon trees by the deposi- 
tion of the Cicada’s eggs. While in the Adirondack region, Mr. 
Peck noticed the fact that the larve of some unknown insect, 
existing in countless numbers, and feeding upon the leaves of the 
alder, were fast threatening the destruction of this plant. Look- 
ing beneath the bushes for the pupæ of the insect in order to ob- 
tain a clue to the latter’s identity, he was surprised to find that 
the larvz, in every instance, had been killed by a parasitic fungus 
before they had had time to undergo their transformation; and 
he believes that by this provision of nature the alders of the above- 
mentioned region have been saved from utter destruction, inas- 
much as in another year they would have been completely de- 
foliated by the larve had but half of those which he observed 
been allowed to come to maturity — Bulletin of the Torrey Botan- 
ical Club. 
Twininc PranTs.— [In the last number of THE AMERICAN NATU- 
RALIST I notice a short article in reference to “the direction of the 
twining of plants.” I have given the subject some attention, and 
my observations show that the direction is sometimes variable. I 
know a large vine of Celustrus scandens that branches fifteen feet 
from the ground, one branch of which turns to the right, the other 
to the left, so that for over twenty feet they cross each other every 
four feet, and in two places are self-grafted together, each plant 
or branch bearing flower and fruit.— Y. C. Andras. 
Tue Germ Disease THEory.—A contribution to this subject 
has been made by Koch, who finds that certain species of Bacteria, 
the lowest forms of plant life, occur in certain forms of disease in 
certain species of animals, and that such animals inoculated with 
ter, to notice what symptoms, if any, were the result of the 
operation, and to examine the tissues of the infected animal for 
the particular form of microphyte contained in the injected fluid. 
By injecting putrid blood or infusion of meat and thus artificially 
producing septicæmia in mice, the animals died in a few hours, 
but it was found that the Bacteria originally injected were still 
confined to the cellular tissue under the skin, and that they had 
not propagated themselves. It was also found that healthy anı- 
mals inoculated with the blood of the dead animal were not in- 
jured by it. Here, then, the disease was evidently due not to living 
