M. C. COOKE, NOTES ON PODISOMA. 265 



in a cell, the external coverings of which are ruptured as the 

 fungus increases in size (inexact). When wet they absorb moisture 

 very rapidly, swell and become much elongated. In the cedar 

 apple they often project to the distance of an inch, and hang down 

 like tassels. In localities where the juniper is abundant these ex- 

 crescences exist in large quantities, so that after a rain the trees 

 have the appearance of putting forth large numbers of flowers, in 

 consequence of the sudden elongation of these collections of fungi." 

 Schweinitz remarks that the cedar apple always precedes the 

 external manifestations of the fungus, swelling and increasing into 

 a more or less turbinate head, which is traversed by the branch and 

 attains a diameter of one or two inches. " When flourishing it is 

 easily cut and eaten, like an apple, and becomes hard when dried. 

 Externally, there is an epidermis-like bark, of a brown purplish 

 lilac tint, and altogether juiceless, like the peel of an apple. The 

 whole surface is regularly dotted with polygonal, usually pentagonal 

 foveola, which are at first plane, but presently dimpled and um- 

 bonate ; at length, the baik being ruptured in the centre, the 

 ligulate tremelloid sporidochia burst forth in moist weather about 

 an inch in length, of the most beautiful orange colour, adorning in 

 the course of a single spring night the whole tree as it were with 

 the richest crop of ripe oranges. If wet weather continues for 

 many days, it remains in this state till the ligules melt away. 

 Under the influence of the sun, however, they soon dry up, and 

 never revive. The apples last for a year. In general, when the 

 junipers are cut into a pyramidal, or other form, they are covered 

 with an incredible quantity of these fungi, but according to observa- 

 tions which I have carefully made for ten years it does not destroy 

 them, nor does it even seem to injure them." * 



The protospores in this species are shorter than in P. juniperi, 

 and longer than in P. fuscum. The teleutospores do not seem to 

 have been examined at present, and our own specimens failed to 

 germinate. They probably resemble those of allied species. This 

 is a desideratum which we commend to the notice of American 

 mycologists. The orange strap-like masses are double the length 

 of those produced by P. fuscum on the same species of juniper. 



The Podisoma of Gasparrini, which he calls Podisoma fuscum, 

 cannot be that species, if his drawings are accurate, for the proto- 



* M. J. Berkeley, in " Hooker's London Journal," iv. (1845), p. 318, t. xii., 

 fig. 6. 



