140 SPHAGNUM INTERMEDIUM, &C. 



apex, broadly bordered with very narrow cells, the hyaline cells of 

 the upper half with numerous spiral fibres. 



Branches 3-5 in a fascicle, longer, often turned to one side and 

 falcate at points ; all divergent, or 1-2 pendent, but not concealing 

 the stem, those of the coma few and more lax. 



Branch leaves laxly imbricated, narrowly lanceolate, flexuose 

 wlien dry, often somewhat falcato-secund, 3-6 toothed, and with a 

 broader border of narrow cells ; chlorophyll cells free on the 

 posterior surface, trigono-elliptic in section. 



Capsules in the capitulum, or more frequently scattered in. the 

 stem, the peduncles being often much elongated. Perichsetial 

 bracts distant from each other, very broadly oval, involute at apex, 

 laxly areolate, with fibres in the upper cells. Spores ferruginous. 

 Male plants more slender, amentula fusiform, the bracts ovato- 

 lanceolate. (Plate xciii.) 



var. ^. plumosiim {S. cuspidatum, " Muse. Brit.,'' p. 4, t. iv.). 



var. 7- hjipnoides. 



var. ^- Torreyi. 



Hnb. — Stagnant pools in moorlands. /3- in deeper water, y. in 

 Lake Hornsee, ^- ponds, in pine barrens of New Jersey, U.S. 

 {Monthly Micro. Journ. [1875) xiii., 2>. 61.) 



INTRODUCTION TO "FUNGI."* 



Although precluded from any remarks on this volume other than 

 a mere statement of facts, it may not be wholly out of place to 

 suggest that those students who have long 'been inquiring for a 

 promised " Introduction " to the Handbook, will find in this volume 

 probably much of the information wbich such an introduction would 

 have contained. The present notice is intended to be confined 

 solely to an enumeration of the contents of the volume, which is 

 published at a price within the limits of all, and of a size con- 

 venient and portable. 



Chapter L, on the " Nature of Fungi," concludes with some 

 observations on the Lichen -gonidia question, and the relations of 

 Lichens to Fungi. 



Chapter II. , on the " Structure of Fungi," deals with the 

 orders in their usual sequence. Allusion is made under Agaricini 

 to the supposed asci on the gills of Agaricus melleus. Since this 

 chapter was written, we have been favoured by Mr. C. H. Peck 

 with a specimen of his Agaricus ascophorus, a description of which 

 was published in 1872. It was then stated that the spores were 

 produced in subglobose sacs at the apex of thick pedicels, tvrelve 

 or more in each ascus. From an examination of this species 

 we find that in addition to the basidia there are two other kinds 



* "Fungi: Their Nature, Influences, Uses, &c.," by M. C. Cooke ; edited by 

 the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, being the xiv. vol. of the International Scientific 

 Series. London : H. S. King & Co. 



