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troulcl therefore reduce hypo3opra to sordaria. Other genera of the pyrenomy- 

 cetes possess similar appendages as diaporthe Nitsohke melanconis (Tul.), 

 lophiostoma (Fr)., but in these genera some species possess them while others 

 do not ; even in the same species they are sometimes present sometimes not, 

 as in lophiostoma canlima. Again in rosellinia, R. niessli (Aiiers.) the sporidia 

 have gelatinous sheaths, and so have those of R. liguiaria, whilst in R. thelena 

 they have appendages at each end. Following out these observations, Winter 

 unites the genera coprolifia, hypocopra, malinvernia, cercophora, and sordaria 

 into one, and would leave the old and generally acknowledged sordaria as a 

 representative of them all. It is the opinion of my friend, Mr. Currey, that 

 these appendages are only the commencement of germination. In this I can- 

 not myself concur. I think that the threads produced by the germination of 

 fungus-spores are less regular in form and length than these appendages, and 

 that the appendages being present in a very early stage of the spores militates 

 against my friend's view. To this he, however, replies that he has observed 

 fungus spores germinating long before they were mature. I think my friend 

 is almost alone in his view. Neither Tulasne, nor Berkeley, nor Cooke, seem 

 to regard the appendages in his view, nor does Winter appear to do so judging 

 by the paper I have been discussing. Should Mr. Currey's view be the true 

 one it will of course upset all characters derived from the presence or ab- 

 sence of appendages, as well as their equivalence to the gelatinous 

 envelopes of other species. I may here mention that I believe the sporidia 

 sphitria ovina and S. bombarda are changed as they become mature from a 



simple linear form to one furnished with an ovate head. At first they become 

 from linear slightly clavate, the clavate end gradually swelling out into an 

 ovate head, and lastly it seemed to me that the linear or tail-like part was 

 absorbed, or dropped off, leaving the"sporidia of a simple ovate form. These 

 observations require confirmation, by tracing a single group of the sphceria 

 through its entire course, which I have been hitherto unable to accomplish. 



' But to return to Herr Winter. In his recent paper (Bot Zeit, 187.3, p. 6i), he 

 reduces various new species to older forms, aa sordaria fimicola (Ces. and 

 De Not) is made to comprehend t?. Conferta (Anersd.), S. fimeti and equina 

 (Fiickel), and he says that probalily Hypocopra stercoraria Fuckel (Sphceria 

 Low) is identical with Sporormia intermedia Auers. Thus there seems to be 

 » very iiretty entanglement for a young student to unravel, all which arif-es 

 from a too hasty nomenclature founded on transient or insufficient characters. 

 Mr. Plowright remarks (grevillea I.e.) that Xylaria pedunculata Fr. is not 

 classed with the firaicoli, although it is, as Mr. Berkeley long since intimated, 

 closely allied to, or identical with, Spo^ria stercoraria Low. Talasne (" Car- 

 ])ologia," vol. p. ), represents this species in various stages of develop- 

 ment, :ind I have myself traced it from a mere thin stroma, in which the 

 perithecia lay embedded, to its most perfect Xylaria form. Talasne in his 

 " Oaipologia' has, in vain it appears, warned those botanists who devote 

 their time to tracing oxit the phases of fruit-formation in fungi against a too 



