HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



77 



family to be called Ceratostomese.* This is im- 

 portant, as showing that he is not wedded to his 

 " carpological" arrangement, when it is convenient 

 and just to depart from it. 



It is frequently forgotten that, although the 

 ultimate aim of systematic arrangements of plants is 

 a genealogical one, yet, while our knowledge is as 

 imperfect as it is in the case of the Fungi, we must 

 be content with that approach to our ideal which is 

 most convenient in practice. After all, one of the 

 objects of classification is ease of reference, so that 

 we may readily identify the species which we find. 

 This was indeed the chief object of the "Sylloge," 

 and how delightfully it fulfils that purpose is known 



The contents of the perithecia (Fig. 49), pressed out 

 in water under the microscope, attracted attention at 

 once on account of the very peculiar outline of the 

 asci, which will be seen in Fig. 53. 



This naturally reminded one of the figure given by 

 Cooke, in the Handbook, of the asci of his SpJia. a 

 ampullasca,* p. 876. The perithecia also agreed in 

 every respect, except that the beaks were scarcely as 

 long as he describes ; but the sporidia presented a 

 decided difference. The sporidia of Cooke's speci- 

 mens were " narrowly lanceolate " or rather oblong- 

 fusiform, with a guttula at each extremity, and con- 

 tinuous, i.e. not septate. Mine, on the contrary, 

 although closely alike in size and shape, were some- 



Fig. 50. — Two adjacent ' 

 Perithecia. X 50. j 





Fig. 51. — Hexagonal cells'of Perithecium. X 1000. 



Fig. 52. — Apex of beak, a, X 300 ; b, X iooo, 

 showing vermiform cells. 



Fig. 53. — a, Ascus of L. ampullasca, X 500 ; b, more shortly 

 stalked ascus, X iooo, showing the thickened bilobed 

 membrane at the apex ; 1-6, the sporidia (the numbers 

 indicate the presumed stages of growth) ; at x, two 

 injured sporidia. 



to all who use it. Afterwards, with fuller knowledge, 

 a more natural arrangement still may be evolved. 



It was on the last day of the just departed year 

 that I found, at Sutton Coldfield, a prostrate trunk of 

 sycamore from which the bark had been partially 

 removed. A perfect storehouse of fungi it turned out 

 to be, and I may on a future occasion give an account 

 of the other riches it produced. On the inner side of 

 the hanging strips of bark, nestling among the fibres 

 of the liber, were numerous black dots, conspicuous 

 under a lens on account of the long projecting 

 beaks that looked like a forest of smoky chimneys 

 (Fig. 48). 



* Horn- or beak-mouthed. 



what curved, and showed in the centre an undoubted 

 though faint, transverse partition. A wider search, 

 however, revealed many of the sporidia without this 

 septum, and with the guttula at each extremity. 



Others also were found, unseptate and furnished 

 with a hyaline conical appendage at each end. 

 These, however, could not but be less developed 

 states of the other forms, inasmuch as I had placed 

 only one perithecium under the microscope, and all 

 the forms proceeded therefore from one individual. 

 It may be remembered that the same deciduous 

 appendages were found in the case of Lophiotrcma 

 angustilabrum {supra, p. 37). 



* Having asci shaped like an ancient jar or ampulla. 



