beauty, as it occurred on a damp morning in North Wales, each of, 

 the conidia growing on a branched mucedinous mycelium, was 

 surmounted by a minute drop of dew, glittering in the sun's rays 

 like a diamond. Hypomyces cervinus Tul. is another pretty 

 microscopic object, its macroconidia, or second form of fruit, are 

 globose and echinulate ; they may be seen everywhere on decaying 

 Boleti in autumn, converting them into a mass of yellow powder. 

 The genus Xylaria has a branched, erect, clavate stroma, the 

 early state of which, particularly in Xylaria Hypoxylon, often 

 puzzles beginners ; the tips of the branches are then covered with 

 a white powder, consisting of conidia, which fall off on being 

 touched, leading the student to consider the specimen as belonging 

 to such of the Hymenomycetes as Clavaria; but later on the 

 branches swell out at the tips, and numerous perithecia are 

 developed in their substance, containing asci and ovate, coloured 

 sporidia, thus showing the true position of the specimen in the 

 series. 



I shall just allude here to a curious fungus belonging to this 

 section, although it is not British. It occurred on rotting 

 Bamboo in Ceylon. It has been named Astrocystis, on account 

 of its starlike habit ; in form it resembles a Geaster, having a 

 double perithecium, the outer coat splitting into several rays, 

 •which become recurved, as in that genus ; the inner coat opens 

 by a more or less, regular mouth, to allow the escape of the 

 sporidia, which are those of an Kypoxylon. The similarity of 

 habit may be regarded as an instance of— what is now much 

 discussed — mimicry in nature ; the structure and true affinities 

 are here far apart. 



The genus Cordyceps, or Torrubia of Tulasne, is one of the 

 most interesting of the Sphseriacei, both from the variety of its 

 habitats, or places of growth, and from the medicinal properties of 

 one of the species. I allude to the Ergot of grasses. In a paper 

 on this plant, published in the Journal of the Agricultural 

 Society of England (Vol. x., 8-8, part II.), Mr. Carruthers says, 



