PHYTOLOGY. 



MYOOLOGIOAL NOTES. 



P T YCHO GA S TER A LB US. 



By Rev. J. STEVENSON. 



I cannot permit the following notes to appear without prefacing them 

 by an expression of the deep emotion with which Mycologists would 

 receive the announcement of the death of Professor Elias Fries. The 

 close of his long and honoured life has left a blank M'hich cannot be 

 filled either for science or for memory. His own words, in concluding 

 a letter shortly before his death, will find a response in the hearts of all 

 to whom his name was familiar — 



" Valeas, et me in amica memoria serves." 



Ptychogaster albtis is familiar to Mycologists ; but, so far as 

 investigations have extended, it remains a mystery in its origin 

 and development. Fries, as is well known, long ago regarded 

 this fungus as a degeneration of Poly poms destructor., but, till 

 a comparatively recent date, there was no confirmation of this 

 opinion. 



I have watched the plant year after year (in one locality grow- 

 ing abundantly), and have never been able to observe affinity 

 with the Myxogastres in the earlier stages of its growth. In the 

 earliest stages in which I have observed it, it is soft ; but its 

 threads are never of the peculiar creamy consistence which is so 

 distinctive a characteristic of the early growth of a true Myxogast. 

 Nor, so far as I am aware, has anything similar to the peculiar 

 development of the spores of a Myxogast been observed in Pty- 

 chogaster. 



In 1874 I gathered specimens which bore unmistakable traces 

 of the polyporoid form. These, however, were scarcely sufficient 

 to warrant a conclusive opinion on the subject. In November 

 1877 I again gathered, in the same locality, specimens which 

 combined more perfectly the characteristics of Polyporus and 

 of Ptychogaster. Of these I forwarded specimens to the Rev. M. 



