148 MB. CITRREY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OE SCLEROTIUM ROSEUM. 



rushes, the pith of which it partially displaces. The fungus is 

 oolong and almost cylindrical in shape, usually somewhat rounded 

 at both ends, and varying in length from -|-th to -J- an inch and 

 upwards. Its surface is marked with longitudinal furrows, and I 

 have observed that the fibres of the interior of the rush fit closely 

 into these furrows. Like many other Sclerotia, its outer surface 

 is formed of a layer of dark-coloured cells, making the body appear 

 black to the naked eye, but which cells, when seen under a suffi- 

 cient magnifying power, assume a brown hue. The internal cellular 

 tissue is. almost white, but with a decided tendency to rose-colour, 

 a circumstance which has given rise to the specific name " roseum." 

 It is worthy of remark that if a thin transverse section be placed 

 under the microscope, it is seen to consist of a mass of densely 

 packed thread-like cells which constitute the substance of the 

 Sclerotium, and intermixed with these cells there is to be seen a 

 quantity of the well-known stellate cells forming the pith of the 

 rush. This fact shows that the Sclerotium has not altogether dis- 

 placed the pith, but has grown round it, cutting off, and as it were 

 incorporating with itself, a portion of such pith. 

 . It was on the 23rd of April in the present year (1856), that in 

 searching for AlgaB in a pool on Paul's Cray Common, near 

 Chislehurst, in Kent, I met with several specimens of a very 

 elegant Peziza growing upon the last year's stems of some species 

 of Bush, probably Juncus conglomeratus. Upon a closer examina- 

 tion I observed that the Peziza was not attached to the surface of 

 the rush, but had emerged from the interior, causing a longitudinal 

 fissure in its passage from within outwards ; and upon splitting 

 open the rush, a black tubercular body was visible which proved 

 to be Sclerotium roseum, to which the stalk of the Peziza was 

 attached, and from which in fact it grew. The cup was of a bright 

 brown colour, varying somewhat in shape ; in most of the speci- 

 mens it was hemispherical, but in some cases infundibuliform ; in 

 one the edge of the cup was erect, extending beyond the equator 

 of the hemisphere, and calling to mind the peculiar shape of 

 Peziza Persoonii as figured in the ' Mycologia Europsea ; \ in 

 other specimens the edge of the cup was recurved and sinuous. 

 The number of Pezizce growing from each Sclerotium varied from 

 two to thirteen, and the greater the number the less was the size 

 of each individual. The diameter of the largest cup was rather 

 more than one-half, and of the smallest about -y-g^li of an inch. 

 The stalk was well developed, being generally about the length of 

 the diameter of the cup, of a darker colour than the cup, and 



