i8o APPENDIX. 



ecx.xix. 



concen.rica. 



S P H JE R I A, 



SPJLERIA jejfila renjformla, exius punElatus fulfuhus fubfidigonofus, intus fragilis,. 



[circulusc oncentricis notata, femina vejicula urceolata. Agaricum durum crajjum 



[affiliation, &c. Mich. Gen. P. 121. Orc/0.4.. 



CONCENTRIC SPMRIA. 



A LL the fpecimens of this plant, which I have feen, were perfectly feflile, ad- 

 "**■ hering to putrid wood, by a broad flat bafe ; it varies in fizc, from the bignefs of 

 a chefnut to that a bullock's kidney ; the fhape is alfo various, convex, cushioned, 

 kidney-fhaped, or fwelled into bunches with intervening hollows. 



The furface is hard, firm, fmooth, and flippery to the touch, but full of minute 

 pundlures ; the bark or external covering is, in itfelf, of a dark chefnut colour ; but 

 at one time, as at a. it is covered with a dark red duft or powder, which is the 

 flower of the plant. At another, this red powder is loft, and is fucceeded by 

 a powder of a velvety black colour, which is the feed. 



The fubftance of the plant, in the infide, is compact: but brittle; it confifts of 

 various ftrata, of a kind of changeable gray colour, diftinguifhed by concentric circles 

 of the fame colour, a little darker. 



The plant is perennial ; and I fufpedt the circles to be the growth of fo many 

 years ; the growth of each year adding a coat of new feed veffels, on the furface of 

 the old. 



The feed-veffels are not globular, but of an urn or pitcher fhape ; while the red 

 powder is on the furface of the plant, they are nearly (hut at the mouths, and full of 

 a white gelly ; when the black takes place, they are open and filled with black feeds, 

 a portion of them, in both ftates, (the bark being removed) is feen a little magnified 

 ate. 



This plant I gathered on old thorns in the park of Fixby-Hall; it has alfo been 

 gathered near EUand, and fent me, in great perfedion, from the county of Durham. 



