20 MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



examining many of them in different states_, I at 

 leno'th found a small mao^orot in some of the 

 younger spots, so that the globules are probably 

 its excrement, and the fibres, the woody fibres of 

 the plant unfit for its food/^ We now-a-days smile 

 at such simple and singular conjectures. It affords 

 evidence of the manner in which the speculations of 

 one generation become folHes in the next. 



Only two species of cluster-cups are described in 

 Withering^s Flora under the genus Lycoperdon : 

 one of these is now called ^cidium compositarumy 

 and is found on various composite plants ; the other 

 includes the species found on the wood-anemone 

 and that on the moschatel, and also probably a 

 species of Puccinia on the wood-betony. 



To render this chapter more complete, though of 

 less importance to the microscopist, we may allude 

 to the other two genera comprised within this order. 

 Feridermium is the name of one genus which 

 contains three British species found on the leaves 

 and voun^ shoots of coniferous trees. In this 

 genus the peridium bm-sts irregularly, and does not 

 form cups, or horns, or fringed vessels. The most 

 common species is found on the needle-shaped 

 leaves of the Scotch fir (plate II. fig. 27), and also 

 on the young twigs, in the latter instance larger 

 and more prominent than in the former. The 

 elongated peridia burst iiTegularly at theii" apices 

 without forming teeth (fig. 28). 



Tn the genus Endopliyllnmj as its name implies, 



