348 J. G. WALLER ON PARASITIC VEGETABLE ORGANISMS. 



essential distinctive character in the globular, ovate, or flask-shaped 

 conceptacle, or perithecium containing asci, which ultimately opens 

 by a pore at its summit to discharge the spores." To this the 

 name of ostiolum is given. 



Now, in the forms I am about to describe, the analogies with 

 the two classes I have just defined will be easily observed, whether 

 they are globular or flask-shaped, they have a mean diameter of 

 the 1,000 th of an inch. PI. XIII., Fig. 1, gives the simple 

 globose form and ostiolum ; Fig. 2 is one similar, but seated upon 

 a sex-radiate mycelium. This feature, however, must not be looked 

 upon as constant, as in the appendages of Phyllactinia (Handbook 

 &c, p. 646), for, oftentimes, it is found to be more irregular and 

 sometimes wanting. At the ostiolum is seen a very minute clavate 

 object, also the same in Fig. 11, though much larger, and at Fig. 

 10, these are grouped around the opening of a conceptacle. In form 

 these resemble some of the paraphyses (Handbook, &c, p. 716). 



In maturity, or at least in some forms, the pore, or ostiolum, 

 becomes obsolete, and the interior of the conceptacle is exposed to 

 the full extent of its diameter, and thus we get acquainted with the 

 reproductive system. At Fig. 3 are seen several globose objects, 

 and outside the margin of the conceptacle minute spores are escap- 

 ing. Fig. 4 shows the same globose forms, and at Fig. 5, besides 

 the phenomena of escaping spores, another object is seen within 

 athwart the diameter of the conceptacle. A very similar form is 

 shown in Fig. 6, and here is a flow of a mucilaginous substance of 

 a pale yellow colour, filled with spores. It is also certain, that the 

 spores in Figs. 3 and 5 must be held together by gelatinous matter, 

 or they would clearly have been washed away, for we must re- 

 member under what conditions these are found. Another similar 

 object, though varied in shape, is seen at Fig. 8, associated with 

 globose forms. Figs. 7 and 9 give other shapes of the same. What 

 part these play, or what title must be given to them, belongs to 

 those who have made the Fungi a special study. They must have an 

 important office, but one cannot say whether they be constant or how 

 far the different shapes may make a species. None of these exca- 

 vated cavities appear to have anything more than a mucilaginous 

 lining. The larger globose objects maybe oospores, and it is natural 

 to conclude, that the minuter forms escaping may be the zoospores, 

 perhaps, in their living condition, ciliated. 



I now come to a very remarkable development shown in Fig. 12. 



