Whether ail other Pe:izas of the same division have eight sporidia in each tube^ we have had uo 

 opportunity of ascertaining ; but it is probably so. The Helvellas, Morcliellas, &c., have the same kind of 

 fructification. Reflect a moment on this wonderful arrangement. The surface of the fungus appears to the 

 naked eve perfectly smooth, like the petal of an artificial wax flower ; examined by the microscope, we see 

 that it is frosted over with small bodies : we tap the fungus, and these fly up and into the air like a puff of 

 smoke. On making a section of the hymenium, a row of tubes is displayed, and we can count the minute 

 bodies they contain ; if we began our examination while the mouths of the tubes were closed, the mira- 

 culous regularity of Nature's works is indeed displayed, for all these countless transparent cases contain 

 neither one more nor one less, but always the determinate number proper to its kind. And these beautiful 

 objects of study are within the reach of all. They may be procured without money and without labour, except 

 a pleasant walk in pure air; they spring up, and attain perfection, and die away, and "no man careth for 

 them ;" in his pride the lord of the creation treads them underfoot. How many things are there wliich we 

 may be sure were not made in vain, but are neglected unless we discover that they are able to help us 

 in some way, to clothe, or feed, or ornament us ! How many beautiful and interesting things are wantonly 

 destroyed, when, unless we can show to the contrary, they have as good a right to live out their time as 

 ourselves! "Why cumbereth it the ground?" we fear if the same question were asked as to human 

 desert, thousands of mute witnesses might justly rise up against us. They at least answer the end of their 

 existence : do we ? Let us learn humbly to appreciate the handiwork of the Almighty. 



To return to Peziza baclia, from wliich we have rambled away; a habit, we trust, excusable, since it 

 must have been acquired in erratic wanderings in search of our friends the funguses. The trivial name 

 badia may be correctly translated sorrel, as well as bay ; and the former is the more applicable term, being 

 exactly the colour of the Peziza when it does not assume a vinous tinge. We have never collected at one 

 time a sufficient quantity for a dish, but there is every reason to believe in its good qualities for the table, 

 and, on the authority of Corda, we intend to try it the first opportunity. 



There is a very rare Peziza, called onotica, or ear-shaped, and the involute portions of our present 

 subject greatly resemble the human ear ; but it is the prolonged prick-ear of some animals that P. onotica 

 is like in configuration, — the ear given to the antique faun, in distinction from that of man. 



