OP PILOBOLUS. 163 



time that the heads are changing colour the upper part of the 

 pedicel becomes swollen into the form of a clear ovoid vesicle, 

 separated by a sharp constriction from the head, but passing 

 gradually at its lower extremity into the line of the stem. This 

 vesicle and the stem were usually continuous and crystalline, look- 

 ing, in fact, as if made of the clearest glass ; but in some instances 

 a granular layer of protoplasm covered the walls of both, and in 

 many specimens there was to be seen a bright orange-coloured 

 band at the point of junction of the stem and vesicle, indicating 

 either the existence of a septum, or a want of affinity between 

 their fluid contents ; I rather think the latter. From a time ante- 

 cedent to the formation of the head, that is, from the period of 

 growth shown in fig. 1, the beauty of these fungi was greatly in- 

 creased by the vast number of drops of water with which they 

 were always covered. This appearance of dew-drops is invariably 

 seen to occur to some extent in Pilololus crystallines, but in the 

 present species the drops were far more abundant, being sufficient 

 in many instances entirely to conceal the outline of the stem; 

 they occurred, although in less abundance, on the vesicle, and 

 frequently also on the head, the latter however being often en- 

 tirely free from them. Up to this point the description applies 

 to the part of the fungus which is, so to speak, above ground ; but 

 the part which is imbedded beneath the surface of the dung is no 

 less curious. There is no great difficulty in extracting this por- 

 tion without injury with the point of a lancet, and then by a 

 careful use of needles, plenty of water, and a delicate camel' s-hair 

 brush, the foreign matter may be cleared away, and it is then seen 

 (figs. 3, 4) that the stem-cell becomes globular at its lower extre- 

 mity, the globe being somewhat obliquely situated with regard to 

 the axis of the stem, and being generally more or less filled with 

 granular orange-coloured endochrome. The globe fits into a cup- 

 shaped cell filled with a similar but denser endochrome, and this 

 latter cell tapers gradually for a considerable length at its lower 

 extremity, and ultimately expands into numerous colourless rami- 

 fications resembling the ordinary mycelium of any other fungus. 

 The spores are formed beneath the black covering at the apex of 

 the fungus, which covering seems to have been hitherto con- 

 sidered, at least in Pilololus crystallinus, to be the coat of the 

 sporangium. Such however is not the case in the present species, 

 for this black covering may be drawn off like a finger-stall, leaving 

 the ellipsoidal sporangial cell enclosed in its own proper thick 

 gelatinous membrane still adherent to the apex of the pedicel, and 



m 2 



