NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 213 



fungus before the Society, as he thought it was not so well known 

 to a number of botanists as it ought to be. It is one of the most 

 beautiful of the British fungi, and nothing can be more lovely than 

 its crimson cup embedded in moss. It is often figured on Christ- 

 mas cards; but, excepting at Cove, on Loch Long, Mr. Fergus had 

 never seen it in nature. The form is somewhat infundibular, but 

 is often more or less flattened or spread out. It grows to about 

 the size of 1 inch, sometimes reaching lh inches. It grows in 

 moist places, and there is a popular tradition that it is only to be 

 found on the hazel or oak; and, so far in corroboration of this, Mr. 

 Fergus said he had not found it on any other wood. If a trans- 

 verse section be cut out of the rim and put under the microscope, 

 it will be found to consist of three layers, externally a cuticle 

 covered with hairs on its outer surface, in the middle a somewhat 

 granular layer, and internally the pigmented layer, which also 

 contains the spores, as usual, eight to a sac, each individual spore 

 being about ^io"th part of an inch — i.e., between 4 and 5 times the 

 size of the red blood corpuscle of the human subject. 



Mr. Fergus also showed an abnormal variety of the Dandelion, 

 Taraxacum officinale, found at the Kyles of Bute in July, 1879, 

 and growing in a cottage garden. The specimen, in its essential 

 features, did not differ from the typical form, but in addition there 

 was developed rather more than half-way up the stem what was to all 

 appearance a true leaf; and in its axil was developed a stem, 2 

 inches long, bearing another floral capitulum — in fact, practically a 

 branch. When the specimen was plucked, the hollow stem and 

 usual lactiferous discharge were observed, and in digging up the 

 root there was noticed on the stem a good-sized bud, probably the 

 embryo of another similar development. As to the cause of this 

 abnormality, Mr. Fergus did not feel justified in giving an opinion, 

 probably it was caused by some division of the growing point 

 taking place as it forced its way through the soil. As a matter of 

 fact he had often observed the capitula of Dandelions split up into 

 two, three, or even four divisions, each subdivision resembling to 

 some extent the perfect capitulum, but he had never seen the 

 development of a leaf almost like a bract with a floral axis in its 

 axil. 



Mr. James Eggleton exhibited a specimen of the Little Auk, 

 Mer gains alle (Lin.), got last year in the neighbourhood of Loch 

 Lomond, and a fine specimen of the female Capercaillie, Tetrao 



