14 DECADES OF FUNGI. 
creation beyond what is the case now. May this not indicate, that 
these plants belong to the more ancient forms, which, inhabiting the 
sea-shores, were with less difficulty preserved during grand natural 
convulsions ? 
If it should be objected to inquiries like the preceding, that they lead 
- to no certain results, it may be answered, that the progress of our 
knowledge of fossils during the last fifty years having been gigantic, 
we.may be confident that our researches, too, will be productive of 
good. . We all know that limits are set to human knowledge; but it 
is only by means of trials that we can ascertain where those limits 
present themselves. The naturalist is not to be deterred by the silent 
Sphinx of nature: he should endeavour to compel her to speak out. 
-DEcapzs or Funai; dy the Rev. M. J. BERKELEY, MA ELS. 
Decade XXXI. 
(Continued from vol. ii. p. 112.) 
The present Decade, with the exception of the last species, consists 
of the novelties collected by Mr. Spruce in his visit to the Pyrenees, and 
the province of Para in Brazil. The species are few in number, but, 
especially the Brazilian, exhibit some interesting forms. All the Bra- 
zilian fungi in the collection are enumerated, but it has not been 
thought necessary to do so with those from the Pyrenees. 
* Agaricus Campanella, Batsch. 
Has. Tanaii. 
: I have seen abundant specimens of this from Xalapa, and from va- 
rious parts of North America, some having the gills yellow as in Euro- 
. pean specimens, and others, especially those from Ohio, agreeing 
.. with Mr. Spruce’s specimen in having the gills cinereous. It appears, 
however, from Mr. Lea’s notes, that even in the Ohio individual the 
gills were at first tawny. All agree in the peculiar nature of the 
down at the base of the stems, which, in the Xalapa specimens, send out 
many decumbent shoots. It is possible that more than one species 
may exist, and that perhaps belonging to the genus Marasmius, being 
the analogue of 4. Campanella, but the dried specimens before me, 
though numerous, are not sufficient to establish the point. 
