FUNGI. 293 



stratum of a paler red, bearing an upper layer of a 

 vi'ad red hue, having an uneven or papillate surface. 

 The microscope shows this stratum to consist of 

 generally globose cells immersed in, or connected by, 

 mucilaginous or gelatinous matter. The cells vary 

 in size and contain red endochrome ; as far as I can 

 observe they consist of a single-cell membrane, and 

 contain a nucleus." ^ Both the foregoing accounts 

 were written very many years ago, and before the 

 organism was thoroughly understood. 



Fresenius, in his " Beitrage," records the results of 

 his examination of these spots, which are called by 

 the Germans " Blut im Erode," from which the fol- 

 lowing is an extract. 



" I took four boiled potatoes, and placed them in 

 a drawer, having previously rubbed two of them 

 slightly here and there with the red substance. 

 After about twenty-four hours the two potatoes 

 which had not been rubbed, and which had not 

 been in immediate contact with the other two, were 

 affected with fresh spots of the red substance, whilst 

 the spots upon the two which had been rubbed had 

 increased in extent. The spots showed themselves 

 in the form of irregular groups of blood-red drops of 

 different size, which in some places were distinct and 

 in others had run into one another. The individual 

 bodies of which the spots consist are mere molecules, 

 their diameter varying from one two-thousandth to 

 one four-thousandth of a line. They are mostly 

 round, occasionally oval, and sometimes slightly con- 

 stricted in the middle by way of preparation for 



' H. O, Stephens, in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. (1853), p. 409. 



