FUXGI. 27! > 



buiy in Somersetshire, while seeking mosses and ferns in 

 the late autumn, we came upon a group of exquisite 

 fungi — in form like the upper part of a wine glass, the 

 rich brown of the envelope (peridium) was regularly 

 striped, and covered with scattered hairs, which rose as 

 a fringe round the edge of the cup. Many of the little 

 parcels of seeds were already scattered among the beech 

 mast and the gray lining was striped like the outside. 

 The cup might have been large enough to fit on the end 

 of a child's fin o'er, but it was too small for ours. We 

 considered our striped Bird's-nest a great treasure 

 (Cyathus Striatus, Plate XIX., fg. 9). 



The neighbourhood of Edinburgh furnished us with 

 the Bell-Bird's nest fungus (C. vernicosus, Plate XIX., 

 Jig. 10). Dr. Greville describes it as frequenting " ne- 

 glected gardens f but the garden where our specimens 

 were found, did not by any means deserve this appella- 

 tion. The beds were gay with successive flowers from 

 the " Fair maids of February" till the Michaelmas daisies. 

 Not a dead leaf was allowed to rest there, not a straw 

 suffered to remain out of its place. Yet upon the box 

 edges appeared the horny cups of the Beli-birds-nest. 

 pallid externally, white within ; its seed parcels carefully 

 packed, and waiting for delivery ; its every manner and 

 habit harmonising with the neatness and regularity of its 

 home. In Scotland it is called " Sillercup." In the^e 

 two species of Nidularia the elastic cords attached to the 

 sides of the envelope. 



In the Crucibulum group the attachment is to the 

 bottom of the cup ; and herein consists the one dis- 

 tinction between these bird-nest groups. 



