418 ENUMERATION OF FUNGI. 
iron. Persoon’s figure is not original. When I examined 
Mr. Sowerby’s specimen, I had great difficulty in finding any 
spores or filaments; but both the specimens from Dickson’s 
collection in the British Museum and the Uitenhage speci- 
mens, which abound in flocci and spores, exhibit the import- 
ant fact, that besides the colourless anastomosing flocci, there 
are others in great abundance, which are simple, extremely 
brittle, irregular in outline, attenuated, and coloured like the 
spores, and contain a single spiral filament. This structure 
must come in aid of the elastic volva, in the rapid evolution 
of the plant. At present, spiral filaments, as far as I am 
aware, have been discovered only in Trichia, amongst fungi. 
The younger Hedwig was the first to notice them. 
Tas. XXI, fig. 1. a. filaments and sporidia slightly mag- 
nified; 5. ditto, highly magnified. One of the spiral flocci is 
represented as springing from one of the colourless threads. 
This is the only instance in which I observed the mode of 
attachment, 
22. Mycenastrum corium, Desvaux,* Ann. des Sc. Nat. 
vol. 17, p. 147. Scleroderma corium, Desv. Mem. de la Soc. 
Imp. de Mosc. vol. 5, p. 73. Zeyher, n. 90. (Tas. XXII, 
fig. 2). | 
In forests near Uitenhage. January. | 
This curious fungus resembles, at first sight, Bovista gigan- 
tea, but the peridium is hard and leathery, above a line thick, 
and opens ultimately in a stellate form. It springs imme- 
diately from the earth, without any root or stem, being per- 
fectly sessile. The capillitium is highly developed, consist- 
ing of strong-toothed, much-branched, brown, inarticulate 
thread, resembling very much, when magnified, some spinu- 
.* Since the above was written, M. Desvaux has, at my request, kindly 
forwarded to me a portion of the capillitium of his plant, which is of a 
yellow olive, with the spores dark, exactly as in Fries’ Bovista suberosa. 
In Zeyher’s plant, the capillitium is purple brown, slightly coarser and 
less prickly than in that of Desvaux, while the spores are larger. In 
point of structure, both flocci and spores are identical. The Cape spe- 
cies, then, must be distinguished specifically from the European. I pro- 
pose for it, therefore, the name of Myeenastrum pheotrichum, It is cha- 
racterised by its purple brown flocci, 
