96 Cincuiuali Society of Natural History. 



tinguishing them from those still living, to which they are 

 related, but with which they do not entirely assimilate. 



" In consequence of the incomplete descriptions, the imper- 

 fect figures, the author has not devoted himself, as he would 

 like to have done, to the work of revision of species ; he has 

 set himself to gather all that seem to him worthy of note, 

 thinking that such information will serve for the study and 

 comparison of species that may afterward be discovered. 



"The genera oi Hymcnoviycetes are A^aricites, Le7izitites, 

 Po/yporites, Dcedaleites, Tranietites^ Hydnites, and the names 

 indicate the relationship to living genera ; as for the genus 

 Archagaricon Hancock and Atthey, it has no living analogue, 

 but it shows frequeut orbicular conceptacles ; it is also char- 

 acterized by the branches of the filaments (hyphce) terminat- 

 ing here and there in vesicular swellings; the existence also 

 of spherical bodies considered as spores. The five species 

 that form the genus are found in the coal schists of Northum- 

 berland, England. The Phycomycetes are represented by the 

 genera Peronosporites and Protoniycites, both these also found 

 in the coal ; the Hypodcrmcce by the genera Puccinites [P/ic- 

 lonites] ^PLcidites ; the Pyrenomycetes by the genera \^Euro- 

 tites] Rosellinites, Lcptosphcerites, Trematosphivritcs, Sp/iaritcs, 

 Polystigf)iites, Dolhidiies, Hysicritcs ; the Discomycclcs by the 

 genera Peziziies, Ccnangitcs, Phacidites, Stcgites, Rhytisinites : 

 the SpJueropsida: by the genera Depazitcs, Excipulites. The Hy- 

 phomycctes so fragile and so fugacious have been preserved in 

 the amber of the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean, and this has 

 permitted us to have a knowledge of the delicate details of 

 their organization ; it is thus that we have in a fossil form 

 the analogues of our Oidium, PcniciUiiini, Streptothrix, Brachy- 

 cladium, and even in the bodies of insects Botrytis tcncUa and 

 SporotrUhum densum. We have also found mycelia analagous 

 to Xyloma, Rhizomorpha, Sclerotium and the productions analo- 

 gous to Erineums^ and due, without doubt, as in those now 

 living, to stings of insects. 



"To this long enumeration of fossil fungi, given by Dr. 

 Meschinelli, we may be permitted to add another. Bacillus 

 ainylobacler. M. Van Tieghem has found this bacterium, with 

 its special forms, in thin slices of silicified wood from the coal 

 terrane of St. Etienne. Thus, this species has existed with- 



