212 



FOSSIL FUNGI. 



Profomijcites protogeues, W. Sm. (fig. 135). 

 Mycelium very scanty^ 18 ix thick; oogonium spheri- 

 cal, about 200 fx diameter_, oospore solitary, 130 /Lt 

 diameter. 



Profomijcites protogenes, W. Sm., in Diseases of 

 Field and Garden Crops, p. 333, fig. 1-10. 



In a slice from a rootlet of a fossil Lepidodendron 

 from the coal-measures. 



We have a second representative of fungi of enor- 

 mous antiquity in a transparent silicified slice of a 

 rootlet of Lejjidodendroh from the coal-measures, 

 now in the British Museum at South Kensingtou. 

 This slice exhibits numerous unusually large sporangia 

 of a fungus not to be distinguished from Protomyces. 

 Very little mycelium can be detected, and many of 

 the sporangia of the fungus are situated in positions 

 where the tissues of the host plant have apparently, 

 but perhaps not really, decayed. We have illustrated 

 one sporangium of this fungus, which may be named 

 Protomy cites protogenes, W. Sm., at fig. 140, enlarged 

 400 diameters {protogenes, first produced or primaeval) . 

 In most of the silicified examples an outer, or exospore, 

 and inner, or endospore, are distinctly visible. (Worth- 

 ington G. Smith, I.e.) 



It is uncertain as to whether the above structures 



