34 



Several instances of abnormal forms of fungi are on record, but 

 none that I am aware of precisely similar to the one in question. In 

 the * Icones Fungorum ' of SchaefFer, are several drawings of mon- 

 strous fungi, and one of an Agaricus exhibiting on its pileus two 

 smaller fungi, but these two were perfect in every respect, and the 

 pileus and hymenium were attached to a stipes which is fixed to the 

 pileus of the original fungus. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in the ' Eng- 

 lish Flora,' gives an account of an Agaricus campestris, in which " a 

 portion of the pileus was occupied by what at first appeared to be a 

 parasitic Sistotrema, but, on closer inspection, proved to be a pulvi- 

 nate excrescence of the mushroom itself, If of an inch broad, J of an 

 inch thick, occupied by spurious gills in the guise of subporiform 

 jagged plates about 1 line deep, and producing sporules like those of 

 the perfect gills beneath, but as it appeared to me rather more mi- 

 nute."— (p. 107). 



Before concluding this paper, perhaps I may be allowed to make 

 one or two remarks on the Morphology of the Cryptogamia. It is 

 only by the observation of abnormal forms like the present, that we 

 shall be enabled to point out what are the real relations of one form 

 of fungus to another, and classify them according to their natural affi- 

 nities. Morphology has done much for classification amongst phae- 

 nogamous plants, but little or nothing amongst the cryptogamous. 

 The * Transactions of the Microscopical Society ' contain, however, 

 the record of a single fact of monstrosity amongst the mosses, which 

 nas afforded an interesting illustration of the application of the prin- 

 ciples of Morphology in the higher departments of the animal king- 

 dom ; Professor E. Forbes, in his paper on the Morphology of the 

 Serlulariadcs, having pointed out the analogy between the change of 

 structure taking place in those animals and the mosses, from the simi- 

 larity of form in their organs of nutrition and reproduction. Have 

 we, then, in this fungus an analogous condition to that which has 

 been found in the higher plants ? If in the fungi we regard the pileus 

 and stipes as the representatives of the leaf or nutritive organ in the 

 higher plants, then the hymenium must be regarded as the analogue 

 of the flower, or reproductive organs. We may then suppose that un- 

 der the influence of cold or other external agent, an arrest of de- 

 velopment in the vegetable tissue of the fungus would be attended 

 with the development of reproductive tissue, as we know occurs 

 amongst the higher forms of plants. It may be objected that we need 

 some further proof that the pileus and stipes are really the analogues 

 of the nutritive tissue. I think that this can be clearly made out by 



