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Vol. IV. OCTOBER, 1895. No. 10. 



A NEW IRISH FUNGUS 



BY E. J. MCWKENRY, M.A., M.D. 



(PI.ATE 5. ) 



When investigating the bog at Braganstown, Count}' Louth, 

 during the excursion of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club 

 to Castlebellingham on August loth last, I came across a 

 mould-fungus which proves to be an as yet undescribed 

 species. In the following pages I will give a short account of 

 this organism and its affinities. 



It was in that portion of the bog which lies east of the 

 railway line, and which was visited by but few members of 

 the party, that I observed a patch of Meadow-sweet, the tops 

 of which presented a peculiar dark brown and shrivelled ap- 

 pearance. This premature decay of a plant that is wont at 

 this season to attain its greatest luxuriance, struck me as 

 peculiar, and led me to examine the patch more nearly. Small 

 greyish- white stalked objects then became visible, dotted here 

 and there over the dried-up and wrinkled stems, petioles, and 

 leaves. The plants did not seem to have flowered. The tiny 

 objects in question were not more than -^jj inch high, and, 

 looked at with a strong glass, consisted of a globose head, 

 silvery-grey in colour, and a short brown stalk, not exceeding 

 in length the diameter of the head.. The whole appearance 

 was very similar to that of a little myxomycete or slime-fungus 

 in its spore-bearing stage ; but the fact that these little stalked 

 bodies were not associated in clusters, but stood well apart 

 from each other without any tendency to be gregarious, told 

 against the possibility of its proving to be a member of that 

 family. Besides, the habitat — portions of a living plant, that 

 had undergone localized death and desiccation — was hardly 

 a likely one for a myxomycete. Further knowledge on the 

 subject was, however, not to be had without a more minute 



A 



