MorpJiology. 4 1 



trated by the common stinkliorrij Itliy pJicdlus com- 

 munis J there is usually a combination of colour^ smell 

 and a sweet mucilaginous substance in which the 

 minute spores are imbedded ; these attractions draw 

 numerous flies, that feed on the sweet mucus contain- 

 ing the spores, which are supposed to be dispersed 

 through their agency. 



In concluding this portion of the subject, I venture 

 once more to impress on the reader the fact that a 

 clear knowledge of the structure or morphology of 

 fungi is indispensable as a preliminary to their study 

 from the systematic standpoint; and further, that De 

 Bary's work on this subject, which has been trans- 

 lated into English,'-^ is the best that can be obtained, 

 and I take the opportunity of acknowledging my in- 

 debtedness to this work in preparing the foregoing. 

 Brefeld's works ^ on fungi, written in German, also 

 contain a mine of information, dealing more especially 

 with the life-history of species. 



Those desirous of working at the life-history of 

 fungi will do well to study an article by Professor 

 Marshall Ward,- as illustrating the exact method 

 followed in tracing the history of a minute mould 

 belonging to the form-genus Polyactis, and I may add 

 that we have several more species belonging to the 

 same genus in Britain, along with hundreds of others 

 respecting whose life-history we know nothing. 



^ Comparative Morphology and Biology of the Fungi, Myce- 

 tozoa, and Bacteria. English Edition. (Clarendon Press Series.) 



^ Untersuchuugen aus dem gessamtgebite der Mykologie. 

 Heften I.-VII. 



" A lily disease. Annals of Botany, vol. ii., No. vii., Nov., 1888. 



