222 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



discover the source of some odour which was growing 

 in intensity, and had already become patent to all. 

 My friend had become painfully conscious of eyes 

 wandering towards him, but he sat with stolid in- 

 difference, as if unconscious of any disturbing element, 

 until, one by one, the passengers vacated our com- 

 partment, as soon as circumstances permitted, and 

 we were left to travel alone. It is not absolutely 

 certain, but an impression remains that the sandwich- 

 box was quietly emptied of its contents, out of the 

 carriage window, before we arrived in town. This 

 incident will convey some impression of what the 

 odour of a " stinkhorn " is like, when in perfection. 



The species which flourish in tropical countries are 

 credited with the same abominable smell. The beau- 

 tiful, but rare Clathrus, which has only been found two 

 or three times in this country, when it escapes from 

 the volva, exhibits a kind of latticed sphere, bearing 

 the same dark olive slime of a most fetid character. 

 Mrs, Griffiths, so well known for her drawings of sea- 

 weeds, received a specimen of this fungus from Tor- 

 quay, and proceeded to make a coloured sketch of it 

 at once ; but it was more than she could accomplish, 

 for, she writes to Mrs. Hussey, " I was so very much 

 annoyed with the stench that I could not take more 

 pains with the drawing ; " the latter lady adds, that 

 "the same unbearably fetid effluvium escapes from 

 the deliquescing contents of the network, as in the 

 stinkhorn." In Australia several species of Phallus 

 have been found, and another rather similar organism 

 called Aseroe, in which the head consists of five or 

 more rays, expanded like a flower (Fig. 40), of a bright^ 



