THE society's NOTE-BOOKS. 99 



^cidium Ranunculacearum.— The cluster-cups of this Fungus 

 grow in the leaf, and appear first as minute brownish spots ; 

 these expand until they burst through the epidermis, when they 

 resemble little cups having a sort of fringe round the circumference, 

 which is elevated above the leaf. These hollow cups, or peridia, 

 are filled with an enormous number of globular spores, which 

 become scattered and thus propagate the fungus. Cooke estimates 

 their number at over 250,000 in each cup. 



H. W. Peal. 



TJlva crispa is a congener of the well-known Sea-Lettuce, 

 U. hifissifna, often grown in aquaria, — and of other marine species. 

 Ulva crispa, however, is not marine, but terrestrial, growing on 

 damp earth at the foot of walls ; I have several times gathered it 

 near London. It consists of a colourless, gelatinous membrane, 

 having embedded in it numerous square green cells in close parallel 

 rows : this arrangement gives rise to some curious optical 

 appearances when seen with a low power. 



H. F. Parsons. 



Aulacomniuni androgynum is one of the Acrocarpous Mosses 

 found plentifully in some districts, growing on rotten wood, etc., in 

 plantations. The normal fruit of mosses is an urn-shaped capsule, 

 but this species is very rarely found in fruit, and it is propa- 

 gated by the male plant sending up a stem bearing a terminal 

 globular mass oi ge?mnce, which in due time fall to the ground and 

 produce new plants. 



The Micro. Dictionary says that these gemmce " are formed of 

 only a few cells (3 or 4) at the time when they fall off, and 

 illustrate well the independence of the individual cells forming the 

 organs of these plants ; where, under peculiar circumstances, a 

 single cell of the tissue may be developed so as to lay the 

 foundation of a new plant." 



W. N. Cheesman. 



Lopliocolea bidentata belongs to the Foliaceous group of the 

 Hepatic(e, or Scale-Mosses, and its fruit, when immature, is like a 

 little black, shining, glass bead, on a white porcelain stalk. When 

 ripe, the bead bursts suddenly, and the elaters, which lie loose 

 inside the capsule and are very minute, spring out and scatter the 

 spores. Specimens may often be found with the four valves open, 

 and a great many elaters and spores lying on them. 



In another species of Scale-Moss the elaters are fixed to the 



