Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow (Volume 4) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: tubercules. According to Professor Dana, the colours of the cortical layer in all the alcyonoid corals, which may be orange, crimson, scarlet, or purple, are due to the colour of the minute calcareous spicules of which it is composed, and which form beautiful and interesting objects for microscopic examination. Mr. John Young, F. G. S., showed a number of specimens of Spkaeria, a parasitic fungus which attaches itself to the head of the caterpillar of one of the lepidoptera. As the fungus grows it roots itself in the body of the insect, which it ultimately destroys, rising as a narrow stem to the height of two or three inches. It is stated that this parasite presents a rather curious appearance as a crop of them is seen springing from the ground where the caterpillars have buried themselves. It is collected by the Chinese, who use it as a medicine, for which a high price is paid. Mr. John Kirsop brought forward a series of specimens of Silurian and Devonian corals,