HA RD J J 'ICA'E'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



there are numberless instances where even genera are 

 now united by gradual intermediate links, and of 

 species this is true in an as yet hardly recognised 

 profusion. 



To a perfect being, having perfect knowledge of all 

 the individual forms of organic nature that exist or 

 ever have existed, the whole organisms of this globe 

 would be varieties of but one species. And although 

 for us, with the necessary finiteness of our faculties, 

 species and genera must always remain, yet there will 

 come a time when the discoveries of men will tend 

 rather to diminish the number of "recognised" 

 species, by discovering previously unknown links, 

 than to increase them. 



But to return to our subject. Among the species 

 of Lophiostoma in the " Handbook of British 

 Fungi," are two, L. caulium, and L. sex-mtclcata,. 

 which have been found on the nettle. Of these the 

 latter is now removed to another genus, Lophiotrema,* 

 distinguished from true Lophiostoma by its colourless- 

 sporidia; and now appears in the sylloge, under 

 No. 5432, as Lophiotrema sex-nucleatitm (Cooke), 

 Sacc. Besides these there is a species, Lophiostoma 

 dolabriforme, with dark sporidia, which has been 

 found on the nettle in France, and may be expected 

 to occur here. 



Last April I picked up an old nettle-stem, at 

 Middleton, near liirmingham, which was in a very 



31. — Lophiotrema an^nstilabriim (Sacc.)- o, side view ; 

 b, end view. X 90. 



Figi 32. — Spliaria macrostoma. (After 

 Tode.) 



F'g- 33-— Sporidium of Lof>hio- 

 trema angu stilabrtim. b, 

 sporidium of L. sex-nucleatum 



(.after Cooke). 



Fig. 34.— Group of sporidia from a single perithecium of L. angits 

 tilabrum. a, a young sporidium ; b, a mature one, showing 

 pseudo^epta ; c, the most frequent form. X 1000. 



Still, as matters stand, the increase must go on, and 

 conjointly, for our own convenience, we must divide 

 and subdivide our groupings more and more. Those 

 who study the group of fungi which has developed 

 out of the old genus Sphceria, know that Saccardo has 

 pushed the process to a very great extent. In his 

 stupendous Sylloge, nearly 6000 species are described 

 which would have been included under Persoon's idea 

 of Sphaeria. It is obvious that such a mass of de- 

 scriptions would be beyond the power of the ordinary 

 human mind to compass, if the art of subdivision were 

 not carefully employed to break it up into intelligible 

 fragments, and those who grumble, as some in Eng- 

 land do, at Saccardo's giant work, remind one of Mrs. 

 Partington's futile efforts to conquer the Atlantic. 



decayed and friable condition. On the lower par 

 were the traces of many old and nearly vanished 

 perithecia of Leptosplncria doliolum, but among them 

 were a few, evidently quite fresh and vigorous, which 

 a second glance showed to possess the unmistakable 

 Lophiostoma crest (Fig. 31). These, on examination, 

 proved to be identical with Lophiotrema Qiigiisii- 

 labrum f (B. and Br.) Sacc, according to the descrip- 

 tion with which they agreed in every respect but one.. 

 This species, the Lophiostoma angustilabra of the 

 Handbook, p. S50, is said by the authors to have 

 sporidia 40-43 y. long, whereas I find the length of 

 the sporidia of my specimens to vary from 28 n to 



* Ridge-aperture. 



+ Narrow-lipped. 



