308 
The Bulrush Caterpillar. 
moisture of the insect's body, then lying in a motionless state, 
vegetate, and not only impede the process of change in the 
chrysalis, but likewise occasion the death of the insect. That 
the vegetating process thus commences during the lifetime of 
the insect, appears certain from the fact of the caterpillar, 
when converted into a plant, always preserving its perfect form ; 
in no one instance has decomposition appeared to have com¬ 
menced, or the skin to have contracted or expanded beyond 
its natural size. 
A plant of a similar kind was presented to me in 1837 by a 
Mr. John Allan, who discovered it growing in abundance on 
the banks of the Murrumbidgec, in a rich black alluvial soil. 
The insect in some specimens was six inches long, and the 
plant about the same springing, like the New Zealand one, 
from the nape of the neck. This plant is quite different from 
the other, being a thick stern, formed by the close union of 
several stalks which unite at the top, and are surrounded by a 
fringe, which, when expanded, assumes the appearance of a 
full-blown flower upon the surface of the soil, the rest being 
buried in the ground: this top has a brown velvety texture. 
Many similar ones were found in the same locality* which is 
the only part of New' Holland in which they have hitherto been 
seen. Numerous empty shells and holes were observed in the 
vicinity; and, at night, the number of large brown moths was 
so great as more than once to extinguish my friend's lamp. 
Both are cryptogamous plants. Insects having a vegetative 
process of a similar kind have been discovered in other parts 
of the world; and probably, when the flora of each country 
is more carefully examined, will be found existing in most of 
them. At the Bristol Association for the Cultivation of 
Science, held in August, 1836, a paper was read by J. B. 
Yates, Esq., on the vegetating wasp in the West Indies, in 
which the author likewise Avas of opinion, that the vegetating 
process commenced during the life of the insect; and, cer¬ 
tainly, a careful examination of these singular caterpillars 
favours the hypothesis. If this should be the case, it is an 
instance of a retrograde step in nature, when the insect, 
instead of rising to the higher order of the butterfly, and 
soaring to the skies, sinks into a plant, and remains attached 
to the soil in which it buried itself. 
ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF TASMANIA. 
The major part of the following list of native words was ex¬ 
tracted from documents in the Colonial Secretary’s Office, 
by the late Jorgen Jorgenson. Those marked with an 
asterisk w f cre furnished by the Rev. Thomas l)ovc, lately 
