26 



OBSERVATIONS ON COLLEMA. 



2. To suggest that there are veritable lichens which live sub- 

 merged, and produce their apothecia. I presume, however, it 

 might be replied that such may have received their inoculation by 

 the parasite during some season of drought, when the alga lay 

 "high and dry." 



3. To suggest the possibility that the spores of Collema, if 

 " sown " on some other gelatinous substratum, besides that of 

 Nostoc — say, for instance, a Palmella or Mesotaenium — might 

 equally well germinate, penetrate therein, and develope a hypha. 

 There seems, I venture to think, no a priori reason against this 

 supposition — inside the Nostoc, the " reserve-stuff " of the spore 

 being exhausted, and the chains of Nostoc filaments admittedly 

 intact, the only next immediate source of nutriment for the 

 growing hypha would, I imagine, in the experiment of Reess, 

 appear to have been the " Nostoc-jelly." 



Now a " Palinella-jelly," or a " Mesotaenium -jelly " (both aerial, 

 that is, not under water), would seem in themselves to be possibly 

 just as likely to afford the requisite pabulum for the germinating 

 and growing Collema-spore. If this conjecture should be borne 

 out, which I would indeed put with all diffidence, what would be 

 the result of Reess's experiments, or, rather, what proven thereby ? 

 Such a combination (if capable) with a Palmella or a Mesotaenium 

 would not be " Collema," because it would not have " nostocha- 

 ceous " gonidia, nor the characteristic periderm. If, indeed, we 

 might for a moment assume that which direct experiment alone 

 could prove, and a germination of spores and penetration of the 

 hypha of a Collema with a Mesotaenium effected, such a " lichen- 

 thallus " would be, I apprehend, unprecedented — a hypha like other 

 lichen-hyphae, no doubt (but known to be that of a Collema), with 

 large elliptical or cylindrical "gonidia" containing a central 

 " chlorophyll-plate," and which would probably (in free nature at 

 least) go on and produce zygospores I 



I trust that the readers of these and my foregoing remarks will 

 understand that I put them forward but with great diffidence ; it 

 was the occurrence of my little spore-bearing Nostoc, which sug- 

 gested to me to venture to do so. Isolated, indeed, as was that 

 example, still no matter from what aspect viewed, even though it 

 be urged that we should look upon it as " abnormal " on account 

 of its rarity, it cannot, I apprehend, but be regarded under any 

 circumstances as to a certain extent suggestive and as possessing a 

 considerable amount of significance. 



Clavaria rosea. Fr.— At the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club 

 Excursion to Saddle worth, June 29th, this rare Clavaria was col- 

 lected. H. H. Higgins. 



North American Fungi.— A series of papers on this subject, by 

 the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., will be commenced in the next 

 number of this Journal. 



