Vegetating Insects ([Vol. iii., p. 166.]).—As the Query of MR. MANLEY in No. 70. has not been answered, I beg to say that Vegetating Insects are not uncommon both in New South Wales and New Zealand. The insect is the caterpillar of a large brown moth, and in New South Wales is sometimes found six inches long, buried in the ground, and the plant above ground about the same length: the top, expanded like a flower, has a brown velvety texture. In New Zealand the plant is different, being a single stem from six to ten inches high: its apex, when in a state of fructification, resembles the club-headed bulrush in miniature. When newly dug up, and divided longitudinally, the intestinal canal is distinctly visible, and frequently the hairs, legs, and mandibles. Vegetation invariably proceeds from the nape of the neck; from which it may be inferred, that the insect, in crawling to the place where it inhumes itself, prior to its metamorphosis, while burrowing in the light vegetable soil, gets some of the minute seeds of the fungus between the scales of its neck, from which in its sickening state it is unable to free itself, and which consequently, being nourished by the warmth and moisture of the insect's body then lying motionless, vegetates, and not only impedes the process of change in the chrysalis, but likewise occasions the death of the insect. The New South Wales specimen is called "Sphæria Innominata," that of New Zealand "Sphæria Robertsii;" both named, I believe, by Sir W. J. Hooker. In some specimens of the New Zealand kind now before me, the bodies of the insects are in their normal state, but the legs, &c., are gone.
Both specimens are figured and described in the Tasmanian Journal, vol. i. No. 4.
VIATOR.
Chatham.
Prayer at the Healing ([Vol. iii., p. 352.]).—N. E. R. inquires whether this prayer found a place in the prayer-books printed at Oxford or Cambridge.
I have it before me in the folio Book of Common Prayer, "Oxford, printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, and to the University, MDCCXV." It is placed between the form of prayer for Aug. 1. (the King's Accession) and the King's Declaration preceding the Articles.
This form differs from that given by Sparrow, in his Collection, edit. 1684, p. 165., as follows:—
Sparrow gives two Gospels: Mark, xvi. 14., St. John, i. 1., the imposition of the King's hands taking place at the words "they shall lay," &c. in the reading of the first, and the gold being placed at reading the words "that light" in the second.
In Baskett's form, the first Gospel only is used, with the collect "Prevent us, O Lord," before it.
In Baskett's form, the supplicatory versicles and Lord's Prayer, which agree in their own order with the earlier form, follow this first Gospel, and precede the imposition and the suspension of the gold, during which (it is directed) the chaplain that officiates, turning himself to his Majesty, shall say these words following:
"God give a blessing to this work, and grant that these sick persons, on whom the king lays his hands, may recover through Jesus Christ our Lord."