of his
out of the Countrey, from _Mamhead_ in _Devonshire_, some of them were
loose, having been, as I suppose, broken off, others were still growing
fast on upon the sides of a stick, which seem'd by the bark, pliableness of
it, and by certain strings that grew out of it, to be some piece of the
root of a Tree; they were all of them dry'd, and a little shrivell'd,
others more round, of a brown colour; their shape was much like a Figg, but
very much smaller, some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry, others, and
the biggest, of a Hazel-Nut. Some of these that had no hole in them, I
carefully opened with my Knife, and found in them a good large round white
Maggot, almost as bigg as a small Pea, which seem'd shap'd like other
Maggots, but shorter. I could not find them to move, though I ghess'd them
to be alive, because upon pricking them with a Pinn, there would issue out
a great deal of white _mucous_ matter, which seem'd to be from a voluntary
contraction of their skin; their husk or matrix consisted of three Coats,
like the barks of Trees, the outermost being more rough and spongie, and
the thickest, the middlemost more close, hard, white, and thin, the
innermost very thin, seeming almost like the skin within an Egg's shell.
The two outermost had root in the branch or stick, but the innermost had no
stem or process, but was onely a skin that cover'd the cavity of the Nut.
All the Nuts that had no holes eaten in them, I found to contain these
Maggots, but all that had holes, I found empty, the Maggots, it seems,
having eaten their way through, taken wings and flown away, as this
following account (which I receiv'd in writing from the same person, as it
was sent him by his Brother) manifests. _In a moorish black Peaty mould,
with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands, upon occasion of digging a
hole two or three foot deep, at the head of a Pond or Pool, to set a Tree
in, at that depth, were found, about the end of _October 1663._ in those
very veins of Sand, those Buttons or Nuts, sticking to a little loose
stick, that is, not belonging to any live Tree, and some of them also free
by themselves._

_Four or five of which being then open'd, some were found to contain live
Insects come to perfection, most like to flying _Ants_, if not the same; in
others, Insects, yet imperfect, having but the head and wings form'd, the
rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance._

Now, as this furnishes us with one odd History more