38

VEGETABLE PARASITES.

non of a vegetable living entirely on air. There are also vegetable parasites (such as the dodder, &c.) which are supported solely at the expense of other plants. But who would expect to find in a vegetable an appropriator of animal food, and that from an insect subject? Yet such would seem to be the case with several Cryptogamous, or mushroom-like plants, which have been found growing, in Guadaloupe, on wasps,* also upon hawk-moths and chafers.† These vegetable parasites begin, it is said, their destructive operations on the bodies of the living animals, and continue them, like the grubs of ichneumons, till their victims' death.

In our own country, bees and humble-bees are supposed, sometimes, to have a species of mucor, or other fungi, growing on them, though it is thought, by some, that the adhering stamina of flowers may have been mistaken for such parasitic sprouts. By Mr. Kirby these vegetable parasites are considered to arise from moisture, which, accumulating on the insect while in a state of torpidity, may afford thus a bed or seed-plot for these mushroom-like excrescences of a diseased nature.

We began our sketch of parasitic insects by pointing to their moral analogy with parasitic vices; and now, having traced, though slightly, the round of their vampyre-like proceedings, we will only take notice of one other resembling feature, thereby suggested, which will serve, at least, to make * By M. Ricard. By Dr. Mitchell.

INDOLENCE THE PARASITIC SOIL.

39

both ends of our subject meet. What are the prevailing characteristics of those animate receptacles which we have seen to be chiefly selected by the prying ichneumon for the fatal intrusion of her eggs? What but sensuality and inertia ? as exemplified in the crawling devouring caterpillar or the dormant chrysalis. And do not these creatures represent exactly the very states, the moral soils, wherein the seeds of vice are usually introduced by the sower of evil? Thus does the Book of Nature teach us, in living characters, what our books of copy repeat so often, that "Idleness is the root of all evil," or, in the words of an old moralist, "The broom that sweepeth clean all good thoughts owte of the howse of the mynde, making it fitt to receave the seven devills."

'Nugæ Antiquæ.'

The Puss in his greatuels a prep ko parasites

JACK O' LANTERN IN ARMOUR; OR,

TOMBSTONE TIM.

A COUNTRY TALE.

"Pale lights upon that tomb were seen,

And midnight voices heard to moan."-SCOTT.

THE church of our native village stood upon a high eminence overlooking a marshy valley; the village itself being a good mile distant, seated on the opposite bank of a narrow stream which wound through the damp meadows intervening. Although most decidedly a country church, and a very old one, there was a something about ours which gave it anything but

OUR VILLAGE CHURCH.

41

that air of snug, peaceful rusticity, usually belonging to such edifices. True, it had its venerable yew-trees, and its ivymantled tower; the latter composing, in fact, nearly the entire building; for the original body of the church having fallen to decay, its place had been supplied by a very small, barn-like erection, so low, and so disproportioned to the massive fragment it adjoined, as to be almost lost amidst the high and numerous surrounding monuments.

Such was the spiritual watch-tower of our parish; but, truth to tell, it was only rarely that the voice of our spiritual watchman was heard resounding from its walls; for once a fortnight only was his cry uplifted, and that in no very awakening strain, in the ears of the few souls which then gathered together, serving to animate (but only by halves) the little cold body of our neglected church.

The churchyard was in keeping with such an edifice ;—in other words, nothing could be worse kept. The cutting blast of winter was the only scythe that ever mowed its graves, or swept its moss-grown pathways; but, in truth, from yellow leaves they hardly wanted clearing, for one solitary stunted elm was the only deciduous thing which told in autumn of departed springs and summers, except the graves of children and of those who had been gathered in their prime.

No wonder that our village churchyard was no favourite resort, and that its odour of sanctity was not inviting. No wonder that few by choice would pass through it after dusk,

42

THE TOMKINS' TOMB.

and that those who were so compelled had at times heard strange sounds and seen strange sights. Though thus lonely and deserted, never, by all accounts, was resting-place so unquiet; and there was one tomb, in particular, held in the worst possible repute. This, which was by far the most ancient and conspicuous monument of the whole mouldering assemblage, was that of a certain knight, who bore, in the reign of our eighth Harry, the unknightly appellation of Timothy Tomkins. It had once stood within the body of the church; but after that had fallen, and been replaced by the little modern substitute before mentioned, Sir Timothy and his Lady—at least their representatives lying in cold state outside the tomb—were fairly (or foully) turned out of doors.

In revenge, perhaps, for this insult paid to their mortal remains, strange pranks were said to be played at the midnight hour by this ancient couple; but, according to the legend of the tomb, the disquietude of those to whom it was erected had its origin in causes much deeper and more remote.

If correctly represented in their monumental effigies, never were pair worse matched (in outward figure) than Sir Timothy Tomkins and his spouse. The knight was of size diminutive ; except his head, absolutely dwarfish; and with a protuberant shoulder, which emulated the tuft of Prince Riquet. His lady, on the contrary, was carved in fair proportions, showing, as the two lay together, like the smooth felled trunk of a poplar, " tall and straight," by the side of a