FUNGI EXSIOCATI. 165 



Septonema elongatispoi-a, Ustilago Sulveii, Graphiola Fhcenids, 

 u^cidiwn Calthce, PuccAnia truncata, Puccinia chnjsosplenii, 

 Puccinia Viiicce, which latter, -as we think, without good reason. 

 Professor Passerini calls Puccinia Berlcleyi, on the assumption 

 that it is not the species called Puccinia Vincce by Castagne. 

 The habit is different when the bilocular spores are produced 

 amongst the Uredo spores, but there is no appreciable diffei'ence 

 in the spores themselves, and we have certainly found both 

 forms on the same plants at different periods of the year. 

 Other welcome species included in this series the purchaser will 

 find in Tubercinia Trienfalis, Pticcinia Tripolii (No. 25), Ustilago 

 antherarum, Puccinia Thesii, jEcidiuin Thesii, &c. Some of the 

 specimens seem rather too scanty for practical purposes. 



Fungi Bxitannici. By M. C. Cooke. Second Series. Cent. i. — 

 This new series is mentioned with the rest, as I'ecently issued, and 

 it may be remarked without egotism that a special feature has been 

 introduced in this second series which will probably commend 

 itself. Figures of the spores of a large number of the species are 

 given side by side with the specimens. These figures are drawn 

 by camera lucida to an uniform scale, and photo-lithographed from 

 the original drawings, so as to ensure absolute accuracy in the 

 dimensions. These can always be found by measurement with the 

 scale at the bottom of Plate 28 in the present volume of 

 " Grevillea." 



FUNGI FROM INTERIOR OF A WHITE ANT-HILL. 



At a meeting of the Agri. Horticultural Society of India the 

 following letter from Mr. W. P. Gibbon, of Doolha, Goruckpore, 

 was read. In an article in the Gardener's Chronicle, on Mush- 

 rooms in India, the writer says : — " I cannot conceive white-ant 

 earth being any use in gardening. The only growth I have ever 

 observed on it, or in the nests, was that of a very small fungus, 

 less in size than any ordinary pinhead, and often mistaken for the 

 egg of the termites, in shape resembling a button mushroom, of a 

 white colour. I now send you a bottle containing mushrooms I 

 extracted a few days ago from the centre of a white ant hillock. 

 When I collected them they were in appearance like asparagus, 

 over 14 inches in length, and the people about here consider them 

 particularly good eating, partaking of them both raw and cooked, 

 and call them ' bhuephor.' " 



When I read the above article in your Society's Journal, some- 

 what over a year ago, I was then aware that mushrooms existed in 

 the interior of ant-hills, for I had often seen them, but I did not 

 know their season of sprouting, and whenever I searched was un- 

 successful till the other day. I have now ascertained the season 

 they sprout is the end of August, or the beginning of September, 

 and I believe all ant hills produce them then. These mushrooms 



