l886.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 143 



leaves of the maples. This, be it said in passing, is an unusual 

 occurrence, because nature has furnished this scale with means 

 of secure attachment to the leaf, as it is really the nidus in which 

 are stored the propagating parts of the fungus. The windy day 

 mentioned, it is proper to say, was preceded by a night of severe 

 frost. 



Under a low power of the microscope, these black, shiny 

 scales are seen to be composed of mycelia, or rootlets, cemented 

 together in a scale-like form and so convoluted as to present an 

 ornate appearance, a sculptured surface, not unlike that of 

 the large dorsal scales of a sturgeon. The scale is upon the 

 upper side of the leaf, where it rounds up somewhat like a shiny, 

 black blister. It, so to speak, puckers up the leaf. Its under 

 side is not black, and is, moreover, the true leaf structure. It 

 is not a single membrane. It is composed of an upper and a 

 lower skin, between which is contained the life-stuff out of 

 which shall come the organs necessary for propagating its species. 

 The elaboration of these organs takes place in winter, when the 

 leaves are on the ground. There they are subject to not a few 

 casualties, hence the need of a housing for the protection of the 

 germinating process ; and this protection is afforded by the 

 black pellicle or blister. The housing is perfect. I tried in 

 vain to dissolve some of this black substance in alcohol. Water 

 softens it, but strengthens it, as it does the paper shell of the 

 Argonauta — making it impenetrable except to the admission of 

 what may be necessary in elaborating the organs within. Such 

 being the house, what about the commissariat ? Every one 

 knows how generous is the supply of starch in a grain of corn, 

 a supply on which the embryo plant depends for its nourish- 

 ment. Now, inside this black vesicle is a white mass, a grumous 

 substance. This is the life-stuff out of which, in this tiny 

 laboratory, shut in from the winter's storms, nature will develop 

 the organs necessary for the propagation of the species. 



The f ungologist speaks of asci and sporidia. And these terms 

 have a preciseness of meaning which fully warrants their use. 

 But it will serve our purpose if we speak of spores, and of the 

 ascus, or little sac, as the spore-containing cell or cup. Now, in 

 this mass of grume, begins the marvellous making up of the 

 tiny cups, the asci, by the mysterious potter, Nature, who, for 

 that purpose, uses the grume as clay. And in each tiny cup, 



