258 MR. F. CURREY ON THE FRUCTIFICATION OF COMPOUND SPHiERI^E. 



quite subversive of existing notions. Whether either of them wUl have any permanence, 

 it would be premature to speculate, especially in the face of Dr. de Bary's observations on 

 the ascigerous fructification of Agaricus melleiis, lately communicated to the meeting of 

 German naturalists at Bonn*. If these observations should be confirmed, it is hardly 

 likely that the case of Ag. melleus should be a solitary one ; and if ascigerous fructification 

 should be proved to exist in the Agarics generally, one great line of demarcation in the 

 classification of fimgi, and upon which aU systems are more or less founded, will be almost 

 obliterated. 



In the tribe of the Fyrenoimjcetes, to which the genus SphcBria belongs, the limits of 

 genera are far from settled : for the researches of Tulasne and others have gone far to 

 show that many of the existing genera are only stages of growth or abnormal conditions 

 of other weU-known plants of the same tribe ; and it remains to be seen whether future 

 mycologists will confii-m the numerous genera into Avhich the original genus S2)h(Bria has 

 been split up, or whether their judgment will not eventually favour the adoption of the 

 arrangement of the ' Systema Mycologicum.' 



However tliis may be, there is no doubt that many, if not most, of the later genera are 

 exceedingly well defined ; and I have therefore thought it advisable in the following de- 

 scriptions, whilst adhering to the earlier arrangement as being that in use at Kew, to 

 notice in each case the genus to which, according to more recent views, each particular 

 plant would belong. 



The present paper is the commencement of an attempt to render the discrimination of 

 species in this extensive and intricate genus more certain and easy than it has hitherto 

 been, by means of drawings and detailed descriptions of the fructification of each parti- 

 cular plant. 



It will have been observed by all who have consulted the ' Systema Mycologicum' that 

 no notice is taken of the nature of the fruit as distinctive of species : nor could such 

 notice be expected ; for at the time of the publication of that work, microscopical appli- 

 ances were quite insufiicient to render the necessary observations inviting, or even feasible. 



The ' Summa Vegetabilium Scandinavise' contains some general allusions to the nature 

 of the sporidia ; but detailed descriptions were not -nithin the scope of that work, which 

 professes only to be a Syllabus of Scandinavian vegetation. 



For some time past, however, the importance of the fructification as distinctive of 

 species has been fuUy recognized ; and any details of new plants would at the present day 

 be considered imperfect which did not afford full descriptions of the fruit. 



Figures of the sporidia of a number of species are to be found in the pages of the 

 ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' in the works of Dr. Montague, De Notaris and others ; 

 and the "Notices" in the 'Annals of Natural History' above referred to, and which 

 relate to new species discovered in this country, are illustrated by excellent drawings. 

 After all, however, the whole mass of the older species remain, so far as regards their 

 fructification, almost entirely undescribed ; and I have long thoiight that good service might 

 be rendered to Mycology by any botanist who would undertake the description and illus- 

 tration of the fruit of any considerable number of these plants. The opportunity of 



♦ See Bot. Zeitung, No. 45, 1H57. 



