188o. ] Botany. 517 
is entirely opposed to the notion that it can enter an insect’s body, 
and produce a disease. Metschnikoff has examined other minute 
fungi, and has by experiment proved their very deadly character 
to the insects exposed to infection; one of the most destructive is 
the green muscardine (/saria destructor). He has cultivated the 
spores in quantity by the use of beer-mash; in this decoction, 
the green muscardine produced a rich mycelium and finally 
spores. Metschnikoff recommended the cultivation of an insect- 
disease-producing fungus in quantities to places infested by these 
insects. ill not some of the numerous microscopists in this 
country make a practical application of this discovery to the de- 
struction of our noxious insects? ` It might be readily tried this 
summer on the currant saw-fly worm, or canker worm, tent cater- 
pillar, the potato beetle, or any other destructive insect which can 
be experimented upon in large numbers near the laboratory. 
THE ORIGIN AND SURVIVAL OF THE Types OF FLoWERS.—In a 
lecture delivered before the California Academy of Sciences, 
October, 1879, Prof. Cope proposed the hypothesis that “the 
consciousness of plant-using animals, as insects, has played a 
most important part in modifying the structure of the organs of 
fructification in the vegetable kingdom. Certain it is that insects 
have been effective agents in the preservation of certain forms of 
plants” (American NATURALIST, 1880, p. 266). Dr. Hermann 
b 
of insects have, each class, bred the flowers they love best. 
r. Mueller is abundantly able to theorize on this subject, and 
whether the mutilations and strains they [plant-using animals] 
have for long periods inflicted on the flowering organs may not, 
as in some similar cases in the animal kingdom, have originated 
peculiarities of structure.” 
Boranicat Nores.—Dr. Parry during his explorations in 
Southern California, discovered a handsome new lily, which has 
been described by Mr. Watson as Lilium parryi, in the Proceed- 
ings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, with an ex- 
cellent plate. The second volume on the botany of California, by 
“r. Watson, is now going through the press, and will be published 
in midsummer,——A revision of the genus Pinus, by Dr. Engel- 
Man, appears in the Transactions of the Academy of Science of 
