52 
burden or 666 cartloads of 1^ tons each would be required to convey the 
wood of the trunk, branches and twigs of half the tree. The oils obtain- 
able from the leaves of the whole tree, might be calculated as 31 hhds., 
the wood charcoal as 17,950 bushels, the pyroligneous vinegar as 227,269 
gallons, the wood tar as 31,150 gallons, and the potash as 51 cwt. 
"'But' he exclaims, 'how many a century must have passed before 
undisturbed nature was able to produce in her slow process of growth, so 
mighty, so wonderful a structure. 
IV. 
The Host-Worm, or Larva of Sciaria Militaris. 
Mead by the Son. Sec. at the General Meeting, December 7, 1871. 
The history of the Host- Worm is not quite 270 years old; yet, like all 
other histories, it possesses its era of myths : indeed superstition has played 
by no means an unimportant part in it, but now the science of natural 
history has put an end to its horrors. That the first appearance of the 
Host-Worm spread terror through a whole forest need excite no wonder 
for it was at the beginning of the seventeenth century, at a time when the 
belief in ghosts, spectres and witches was most flourishing. The 
altogether singular, mysterious, snake-like gliding of the processions of 
the Host-Worm ; its noiseless, slow and yet uninterrupted advance in the 
darkness of the forest, and its gradual, trackless disappearance under the 
leafy covering of the ground could not fail to produce uneasy feelings in 
most minds, while in those of timid people it awakened fear and horror. 
Now possessing one, now several heads, it was considered to be 
intermediate between worm and dragon, and the good folks in Thuringia, the 
Hartz, and the Eiesengebirge called it by such expressive names as "host- 
snake, war-snake, war-worm, worm-dragon, dragon-snake, snake-worm, 
etc." By the inhabitants of the Hartz it was also known as " hunger 
worm," because to them it was a harbinger of a bad harvest if seen 
ascending the mountains, of a good one if creeping downwards. To the 
inhabitants of the Thuringian Forest it announced war when ascending, 
pcaco when descending ; still on the whole it was more feared as a herald 
of war than greeted as a messenger of peace. Not only was this 
