[ 221 ] 



XXIV. Note on the Maters 0/ Trichia. 

 By Arthur Henfrey, Esq., F.B.S., F.L.S. 8fc. 



Read February 7, 1854. 



1HE existence of spiral fibres in the filamentous elaters mixed with the spores of Trichia 

 and some allied genera of Fungi, is a fact so remarkable, that, since attention was drawn 

 to it by Corda, it has been mentioned in almost every notice on the general structure of 

 the lower Cryptogamia. Had it not been recently called in question by two distinguished 

 vegetable anatomists, I should not have ventured to occupy the attention of the Society 

 with the matter, when I have only time and opportunity at present to describe the condi- 

 tion in a single species. 



Hedwig the younger (1802) was the first to point out the existence of the spiral fibres, in 

 three species of ' Lycoperdon,' which Schlechtendahl identifies as Trichia rubiformis, Fries, 

 T. chrysosperma, Fries, and a Diderma. In looking over the Ratisbon ' Flora,' I find a 

 passage in a paper written by Kaulfuss, on Targionia, in 1822, in which that author says, 

 " according to my investigations, the structure of the so-called capillary tissue of the Tri- 

 chiacese is exactly the same as that which we find in the elaters of the Hepaticse." So 

 that apparently Corda was the third, and not the second, observer of the fact, as is gene- 

 rally imagined. Corda first made it known in an essay published at Prague in 1837, 

 having in the same year brought it before the Association of German Naturalists, at 

 their meeting in Prague. Schnitzlein has figured the structure in his • Iconographia,' 

 and a notice on the subject, without figures, but asserting the existence of the spiral fibres, 

 was published by Schlechtendahl in the ' Botanische Zeitung ' of May 4th, 1844. 



On the other hand, Schleiden, in the most recent edition of the ' Grundziige der wissen- 

 schaftliche Botanik,' says (ii. 41) that observations, recently repeated, have perfectly con- 

 vinced him that the appearance of spiral fibres arises from the twisting of a flat band ; 

 while Schacht, in his ' Pfianzenzelle,' declares (p. 151) for the same view. Schleiden 

 gives no figures, but Schacht draws fragments of elaters from two species of Trichia 

 (pi. 16. figs. 13 and 14) ; but his figures completely contradict the statements in the text, 

 for they give appearances which could not possibly arise from the twisting of a flat band. 



Having carefully examined the elaters of Trichia (serotina, Schrad. ?) in some specimens 

 sent home to the Society by Mr. Ralph, from New Zealand, I am prepared to assert posi- 

 tively the existence of spiral fibres, exactly analogous to those in Marchantia polymorpha ; 

 the number of fibres in an elater of this species of Trichia is three. Corda describes a 

 much greater number in some species, but I think that point is open to doubt. The 

 fibres thin off towards the very gradually attenuated ends of the tubular elaters, and 

 apparently become confluent there, in the same manner as I described in Marchantia 

 polymorpha (Linnean Transactions, vol. xxi. p. 107), but the ends are so fine that even 



