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by LI 
Hiftory of the Britifh Stellated Lycoperdens. 53 
fyftem, I am under the neceffity of faying, that they do by no 
means reprefent the plant fairly. Let a comparifon of thefe figures 
with fpecimens be made; and at the fame time a comparifon of the 
figures and fpecimens with the figures in Phil. Tranf. and Blackft. 
Sp. bot. and the truth of my affertion will evidently appear. Mr. 
. Bryant's fig. 15, which i is intended to reprefent a perfect quadrifi- 
dum, exhibits the lower rays, or divifions of the volva, equal in 
length and breadth to the upper, and fplit abfolutely to the centre. 
The upper rays are figured flat, forming acute angles at their junc- 
tion, and touching the. lower only. at fome fmall diftance from 
ir tips; they are alfo curved in a direction never feen in this 
plant, cus recently opened, as figured in Sch. 183. 1. but this 
is profeffedly an old fpecimen in a (tate of decay, and rolling about, 
the fport of wind and weather (p. 28). From thefe circumftances, 
I fhould have been led to fuppofe that Mr. Bryant had a&ually 
never feen and examined the real Lycoperdon fornicatum, had I 
not been fhewn a fpecimen received from him, which correfponded 
exactly with mine, and the figures I have quoted. The only con- 
clufion I can. therefore draw (for I am very far from accufing, or 
even thinking Mr. Bryant capable of wilful mifreprefentation) i is, 
that he may have met with a fpecimen or fpecimens of Ray's 
plant, in which fome of the accidents defcribed may ‘have taken 
place, and caufed fome variation in the appearance of the plant, 
and fome refemblance of the double volva. 'The fpecimen from 
which fig. 14 was taken, which feems to have been partially buried 
in the ground, may have been of this fort; and with the help. of a 
warm imagination, of which ftrong inftances have been given, and 
a violent paffion for forming a theory, would afford fufficient ground 
for this author to work upon. This is the more probable, as he 
has defcribed the Lyc. fornicatum, B. quadrifidum, or fornicatum 
of Hudfon's Fl. Ang. to be a plant of extraordinary rarity. But 
fuch. 
