314 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



After many unsatisfactory attempts with dry objectives, and 

 inferior powers, but with some attention to chemical preparation of 

 the material, Mr. E. Tuckerman, of the United States, says * that he 

 has at last had the pleasure, with an immersion ^ of Tolles, to clearly 

 discern the pale greenish, broken column, passing into rounded, 

 microgonidium-like masses, contained in, and seen at length to escape 

 from, the medullary hyphfe of the Parmelia of Wright Lich. tub. 

 n. 74 (there called by him P. tiliacea, v. flavicans, and supposed the 

 same with the P. relicma, at least of IVIontagne), reaching this result 

 with a power of only some six hundred diameters, and without other 

 preparation than a thorough maceration of the tissue in water. With 

 a ^^ of Tolles, a 1-inch eye-piece, and power of about 1000, the whole 

 structure and especially the colour, was better exhibited ; as it was 

 best of all in Tolles's admirable y^^ and 2^- 



Influence of Light on Fungi. — The common idea that not only 

 can fungi live without the influence of light, but that it is actually 

 injurious to them, is contested by S. Schulzer, of Muggenburg,| who 

 points out, in support of his view, the following facts. The common 

 Sphoeria compressa grows upon wood, originating at various depths 

 below the surface. When it first makes its appearance, at a distance 

 from the light, the perithecium is inconspicuous, thin, and colourless, 

 becoming thick and dark-coloured only on exposure to light; and the 

 same is true of several other Sph^eriaceae. Cortinarius fulgens and 

 C. cyanus change their colour, as they mature, the one from light 

 yellow, the other from violet, to brown, and this can be shown to be 

 due to the influence of light, and not merely to age. Many fungi which 

 are light-coloured and weak when buried in grass or underwood, are 

 much more vigorous and of a darker colour when exposed to a stronger 

 light. Peziza Fucheliana always grows in an oblique direction 

 towards the light, the stem becoming curved in a seri>entine manner 

 if its position in reference to the source of light is altered from 

 time to time. It exhibits, in fact, a distinct positive heliotropism. 

 Finally, a considerable number of the perennial hard Hymenomycetes 

 belonging to the Polyporei, are able completely to develop their 

 fructification only when freely exposed to light. 



Spores on the upper side of the Pileus in Hymenomycetes.— 



The occurrence of a thick layer of spores on the upper side of the 

 pileus — under circumstances where they cannot have fallen down 

 from some other individual — has been observed in a single exotic 

 genus of Agaricini, Stylobates Fr., and in several species of Polyporei, 

 especially belonging to the genera Polyporus and Boletus. No expla- 

 nation has been afforded of this singular circumstance before the 

 recent observations of S. Schulzer. J In a species newly dis- 

 covered by him, Polyporus adspersus, and subsequently in several 

 other species, he observed that while some of the horizontal hyphaB 

 of *the pileus bend downwards towards the hymenial layer consisting 



* ' Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts,' xvii. (1859) 254. 

 + ' Flora,' xxxvi. (1878) 119. 

 X Ibid., 11. 



