54 REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON THE SPIRAL MARKINGS 
Crossandra puberula. Rios de Sena. | Rhinacanthus gracilis. Goa Island. 
Adhatoda formosissima. Rios de | Eranthemum Senense. Rios de 
Sena ; Tette. - Sena ; Boror. 
——— striata. Rios de Sena. Blechum hamatum. Rios de Sena. 
Mossambicensis. Mossambique | Dicliptera Mossambicensis. Island 
Island. and mainland of Mossambique. 
? microphylla. Mossambique 
Island. 
Herb. Kew., 19 Feb. 1863. ] 
On the Spiral Markings of the Flocci.in the Genus T'richia. 
By the Rev. M. J. Berxentt, M.A., F.LS. 
[Read April 17, 1862.] 
A Goop deal of controversy has arisen respecting the real nature 
of the spiral markings in the genus Zrichia, which were first ob- 
served by Schmidel and the younger Hedwig, and afterwards 
more exactly, on modern improvements in the microscope, by 
Klotzsch and Corda, who were probably, at the time they made 
their observations, unaware of the earlier notices. The accuracy 
of Corda’s drawings has, however, been called in question; and 
mycologists, a few months back, were pretty equally divided on 
either side, the one regarding the threads as real spiral vessels, 
the other insisting that the spiral lines were due to torsion, while 
Mr. Currey advocated a third opinion, in which he has been fol- 
lowed by De Bary and Wigand, viz. that the markings were due 
to elevations in the threads assuming a spiral direction. 
The question has again been brought immediately under my 
notice by some observations of Mr. Knight, sent in a letter to 
Dr. Hooker from New Zealand, an extract of which I shall beg to 
lay before the Society. 
“T notice,” writes Mr. Knight, “in the review of Mr. Ber- 
keley’s ‘ Outlines of British Fungology ’ in the * Natural History 
Review' of January 1861, p. 8, that the reviewer states, in re- 
spect of spiral vessels, that it is true that all the species of Trichia 
contain threads, all of which bear spiral markings, but the nature 
of these markings is still a subject of controversy. 
“That these threads are true spiral threads I cannot doubt. 1 
should, three or four years ago, have drawn, your attention to the 
observations I had made on the subject, had I not been under the 
impression that the controversy had ceased, and the spiral nature 
of those cells been admitted. 
