130 BECOKD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Operculoe, the opening of the asci taking place by the elevation of a 

 little lid at the summit, and the second InoiJerculate Discomycetes, or 

 Inoperculce, the exit of the sporidia taking place by a small hole, 

 formed at the extreme summit of the ascus, with its margin more or 

 less elevated, but without any appearance of an operculum. 



The OperculsB include the Morels, the Helvellas, the Verpas, the 

 PezizsB of the sections Aleuria, Humaria, many of the Lachnece, 

 Ascobolus, and the greater part of the genera which are derived from 

 this section ; and the Inoperculfe include Geoglossum, Mitrula, Leotia, 

 PMalea, Helotium, Lachnella, MoUisia, and all the genera belonging 

 to them. 



There is no great difficulty in observing the mode of dehiscence, 

 although few authors mention it. A very little attention soon renders 

 it quite familiar, and M. Boudier considers its careful observation 

 indispensable to a good classification of genera and species. A 

 magnifying power of 300 diameters is sufficient, but it is necessary to 

 examine the upper extremity of the open asci. These asci are always 

 to be recognized by the absence of protoplasm, by which they differ 

 from the young plants which have not yet formed their sporidia. 

 Tincture of iodine may be employed, which colours the membrane 

 and renders the operculum more visible. This tincture should, 

 indeed, always be employed in the examination of species, because it 

 often gives a deep-blue colour at the extremity of the ascus, as in 

 Aleuria proper, Peziza cochleata, P. hadia, P. vesiculosa, and others, and 

 the character has a certain value; in other eases the colour is 

 fainter, as in P. firma, P. ecliinophila, &c. ; in other cases again, 

 only the extreme margin of the opening is tinted, as in Mitrula, or it 

 appears as a blue point, while more frequently the iodine does not 

 produce any other coloration than a yellowish tint. 



It must be pointed out, with regard to this suggestion of M. Boudier, 

 that all our knowledge of exotic species, and of the earlier British 

 ones, must be derived only from dried specimens. As according 

 to the proposed system the distinctive characters are those which 

 cannot be discerned in dried specimens, these could never be 

 determined and no species described. 



Vinegar-Plant and similar Fungi.* — The vinegar-plant or 

 mother-of-vinegar {Mycoderma aceti), consisting of pellicles built 

 up of elliptical cells, has been observed by M. Schnetzler to produce 

 a series of cup-shaped masses in a bottle of white wine, which, 

 falling in succession to the bottom, produced a cylinder of more than 

 4 inches in length ; each cup as it fell left behind it a train of gela- 

 tinous bacterium-matter, which, passing from an actively mobile 

 to a passive zooglcea state, reproduced the film. The exclusion of 

 air by a cork did not hinder the growth. 



The gelatinous material which envelopes the bacteria agrees in 

 chemical characters with the cellulose of most fungi, in being 

 insoluble in ammonio-sulphate of copper and in not being coloured 

 blue or violet by iodine and zinc chloride, — the former imparting 



* 'Bull. Sof. Vau.l. Nat. Sci.,' xvi. (1870) p. 441. 



