498 EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOR OCTOBER. 



As every day exhibits sadly increasing numbers of 

 denuded trees spreading their melancholy skeletonized 

 forms against the clear blue sky, the Virgin's Bower 

 (Clematis vitalba), wreathed around them in woody 

 limestone spots, often to a considerable height, begins 

 to show its plumy seeds very conspicuously, though 

 their snowy featheriness is not fully attained till the 

 following month. It is not yet too late even for the 

 water-plants, for various families of these may be 

 found in October, in fine flower or fruit, as several of 

 the curious genus, Chara, which occur, entirely filling 

 whole ponds ; or if the season has been dry, and the 

 level of ponds and streams is lower than usual, indi- 

 viduals of the genera Potamogeton and Ceratopliyllum 

 can be easily gathered and examined. 



But, in fact, new objects of attention occur on the 

 very leaves themselves, withered as they are, and about 

 to sink into total and irremediable decay. ^Ecidii, 

 Uredines, Meticularice, and other minute Fungi fix 

 upon them just before they fall, and stain them in a 

 remarkable manner, while the lens discloses amidst 

 what would be mere mildew to a common eye, numbers 

 of minute spheres, of various colours, which, in some 

 cases bursting, expose to view countless multitudes of 

 still smaller globular sporules, invisible but to the 

 microscope, which are the reproductive particles from 

 which future acotyledonice are to spring. Such are 

 the minute wonders of Divine skill. 



[Fallen leaves have often a most curious appearance, 

 pustuled, distorted, coloured or blackened by epiphy- 

 tical fungi thus full of life even when supposed to be 

 dead. Dotliidea TJltni makes elm leaves appear as if 

 covered with a sparkling metallic substance, while 



