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XIII. Account of a new Plant of the Gastromycous Order of 

 Fungi. By J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S. 



Read February 19, 1828. 



I BEG leave to offer to the Linnean Society the following ac- 

 count of a minute but very interesting individual of the Gastro- 

 mycous tribe of Fungi, recently detected b}'^ me in this neigh- 

 bourhood. Though it does not appear to have been hitherto 

 noticed by botanists, it is not improbable that it may sometimes 

 occur in similar favourable situations. Its extreme minuteness 

 and general resemblance to others of the same natural family, 

 easily accounts for its having been overlooked altogether, or 

 confounded with them. The peculiar elegance of its mature 

 form, were it of sufficient size to meet the common eye, could 

 not fail to arrest the attention of the most indifferent. As it is, 

 specimens can be discovered only by the patient explorers of 

 their shaded and secluded haunts : for so ephemeral is their 

 duration, and their texture so perishable, that but few of them 

 can be preserved for future examination. On this account, I 

 regret that I am unable to present any specimens to the Society 

 of the individual in question ; but the accompanying plate ex- 

 hibiting its different stages may be relied on as correct. 



Its height scarcely exceeds half a line, and its colour differs 

 little from the decaying wood on which it grows. Tab. l6. /". a. 

 represents its natural size both in its early and mature states, 

 but the rest of the figures are all highly magnified. It requires 



VOL. XVI. X a good 



