95 



not before seen them run on the surfiice although it is a 

 common habit with several other species. 



MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



Rev. E. C. BoLLES of Salem said that if there have 

 been but few flowering plants collected for consideration, 

 almost every one must have remarked, perhaps without 

 knowing what they were, two curious vegetable growths 

 which Avere largely represented among the specimens upon 

 the table. The roads about Middleton are bordered with 

 a great abundance of Berberry bushes and Blackberry 

 vines ; and all of the former and many of the latter exhibit 

 vegetable parasites in profusion upon their young foliage. 

 These parasites are microscopic fungi only visible to the 

 naked eye in the mass. The specimens before the meet- 

 ing represent two divisions of the great family of the 

 fungi, named Coniomycetei^ or Dust-fungi, because the 

 most evident character about them is their powdery spores. 



The Berberry bushes have a large proportion of their 

 leaves spotted with numerous yellow discoloratiohs. These 

 are found to proceed from clusters of points which roughen 

 the under surface. Microscopic examination shows each 

 point to be a short cylinder thrust up through the cuticle 

 of the leaf, and having its upper edge cut into teeth or 

 segments, which are turned over the outside very evenly. 

 Eiich cup contains many rounded translucent grains, and 

 as the cup with its frill is white and the grains a rich yel- 

 low, the whole makes a very beautiful object for the mi- 

 croscope. The cells are clustered together — hence the 

 conmion name. Berberry Cluster-cups (^Ecidium Ber- 

 beridis). The yellow grains are the spores and with the 

 cups form the fructification of the plant. The rest of its 

 structure as in all fungi is represented by the mycelium, or 

 mat of white fibres, which pervades the tissue of the leaf. 



