FUNGI. 305 



ceps. The Clematis draping the Herefordshire lanes is 

 speckled with one Hypocrea, and the culm of the Fescue 

 grass wears a broad belt of another, this latter being of a 

 bright orange, turns the stem round which it grows into 

 a perfect club, so as to earn for itself and its support a 

 title of relationship with the reed mace (H. Typhina). 

 Our specimens grew in Kentish pasture. 



The Xylaria group boast some sizeable members ; they 

 are endowed with stems, and are covered with a dark 

 woody coat. The clumsy Xylaria (X. polymorpha, Plate 

 XX., Jig. 15) is like a massive club. It is black and 

 heavy, and looks like charred fragments of wood as it 

 clusters on the decaying stump. We found it in great 

 quantity near Maiden Bradley, in Wiltshire ; and as we 

 examined it more closelv, we soon began to admire it. 

 Upon breaking away the external crust the hollow in- 

 terior of the plant became exposed to view ; and not the 

 dome of St. Paul's, when filled with the well assorted 

 bands of charity children, could present a more perfect 

 picture of order and regularity than did the graduating 

 tiers of asci, so symmetrically arranged round the cupola 

 of the Xylaria. 



The Candle-snuff Xylaria (X. Hypoxilon, Plate XX.. 

 jig. 14) is common everywhere, and would be generally 

 familiar but that a great proportion of the eyes that rest 

 upon it mistake it for charred stems of heath or bilberry, 

 and give no thought to the fact that as no other mark of 

 fire is visible, it may admit a doubt whether heath can 



have been burnt there at all. The stem of this fungus is 



© 



sometimes simple, and sometimes branched, always furry 



to the base, and generally wearing white powder on its 



u 



