lo The Irish Naturalist. [Jan. 



shaped fungi, the former with a stalk, the latter without one. 

 The next fungus is also a Peziza — as these disc-shaped species 

 are called — and is a much prettier object, its blood-red disc 

 being surrounded with a circlet of brown bristles. It grew at 

 Brackenstown more abundantly than I had ever seen it pre- 

 viously, and was found on the fallen stumps by nearly every 

 member of the party. The two Ascoboli, despite their lowly 

 habitat, are also handsome objects. Their spores are large, 

 violet, and adorned with a beautiful raised tracery, whilst there 

 is besides the peculiar character that the ascus as well as the 

 spores is ejected at maturity. The spore-bag, however, is 

 not quite dislodged, but projects above the surface of the 

 hymenium, and opens at the top by a dainty little lid, 

 and so allows the spores to issue forth. I^astly, we have 

 Sk^nonitis, a representative of that strange order intermediate 

 between plants and animals, the Slime-fungi (Myxomycetes), 

 which at one time appear as shapeless, creamy, or foamy 

 masses of living jelly — pure undifferentiated protoplasm, the 

 very naked and unadorned basis of life — whilst the next day 

 they have turned into little spore-cases of various and dis- 

 tinct shapes. Sow the spores in a drop of water, and you 

 will see them presently burst. A tiny, shapeless mass of 

 jelly will crawl forth, and, meeting another such *' amoeba," 

 the two will flowtogether, and others will thenjoin the company 

 until ultimately a large mass of protoplasm, quite easily seen, 

 is the result. This crawls about, feeds, grows, becomes 

 changed into spore cases, and thus the appointed cj'cle goes 

 round. 



Before concluding this little paper, in which I hope to have 

 said something to clothe the dry bones of our Brackenstown 

 fungus-list with a living interest, I must express my warmest 

 thanks to my friend Prof. Johnson, whose liberality in giving 

 me access to the fungus-literature at his disposal, has placed, 

 me in a position to determine many of the species. 



Agarlcus (CoIIybfa) radicatus, Relh.— One specimen had the 

 stem 9 inches long, exchisive of the root, which was, unfortunately, 

 broken off short. The pileus was 6 inches across. 



A. (Clltocybc) Infundibuliformls, Sch. 



A. (Wlyccna) tintinnabulum, Fr, 



A. (M.) corticola, vSchum. 



A. (IVl.) tcnerrimus, Bk. 



[Two other species, o^ Mycena were collected, but not identified.] 



A. (PIcurotus) cortlcatus, Fr. 



