the thirst for knowledge, and the zeal of modern 
naturalists, that errors, not more intricate than this, 
are sure of being detected. 
The spots to which we have alluded, are now known 
to be a species of fungus ; one amongst the thou- 
sands of epiphyllous fungi, or parasitic vegetables, 
which are produced on the surface of leaves; and 
which have opened a new field of enquiry to the 
botanist, as inexhaustible as it is wonderful. 
A somewhat similar fungus grows on the leaves 
of the English Berberry, and there is great proba- 
bility, that it is the scattering and propagation of this 
fungus upon wheat, which occasions its sterility when 
grown near that shrub. 
Some species of fimgi are common to various plants, 
yet every plant may, possibly, have its peculiar pa- 
rasitic species — an enemy to its vitality, but an in- 
dividual, in the great scheme of creation, as distinct 
as the superior vegetable on which it exists. The 
principal difference between the two must be im- 
puted, in part, to the imperfection of oim perceptions, 
and not wholly to the different scale of existence in 
which they apparently occur. 
The same economy of nature is seen to prevail in 
a superior order of beings. As vegetables are sub- 
ject to the attack of parasitic vegetables, so, also, are 
animals made the support of parasitic animals, and 
this to a degree in which our visionary organs are 
incapable of being our assistants. We are here on 
a circumscribed speck of the imiverse, incapable of 
comprehending the immensity of the worlds which 
surround us ; or, the minuteness of animal and vege- 
table life which inhabits our o%vn. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 3, 340. 
