CURREY, ON FUNGI. 125 



which is probably of the same nature as that observed by 

 Tulasne in Buhjaria sarcoides, Peziza bolaris, Peziza Cylich- 

 nium, Peziza tuberosa, and Peziza vesiculosa. It consists in 

 the formation of minute spherical or subspherical utricles on 

 the surface of the spore, and which Tulasne has called sporo- 

 genous spermatia. The bodies observed by Tulasne were 

 sometimes (in Bulgaria sarcoides, for instance) upon the ex- 

 posed endosporium, sometimes upon short tubular appendices; 

 sometimes they had very short pedicels, and sometimes 

 they were sessile ; they were sometimes joined together in 

 rows, sometimes in bunches,butwere more frequently solitary, 

 and they were often produced successively, i e., as one of them 

 dropped off another supplied its place, until the power of the 

 spore was exhausted. In the spores of Peziza aurantia, to 

 which I have referred, similar utricles were produced, but 

 they were all sessile upon the surface of the inner membrane 

 of the spore, and in many of the spores the outer mem- 

 brane (although extremely thin and fine, and easily to be 

 overlooked) was sufficiently discernible upon a careful ex- 

 amination, entirely enclosing the utricles. In fig. 39 are 

 shown three of the spores of Peziza aurantia in their usual 

 form, as they appear in the interior of the asci, magnified 

 315 diameters ; and fig. 38 shows three of the same spores 

 after they have escaped from the asci, and lain some time 

 upon the surface of the hymenium, and commenced the 

 process above-mentioned. In some cases, the growth had 

 taken place before the escape of the spores from the asci. 

 In some of the spores, the utricles produced at one extremity 

 or pole were somewhat longer than those in the other posi- 

 tions. The spores of Peziza aurantia, as of those of several 

 allied species, are elliptical, and there are almost invariably 

 found two globular nuclei, or oil drops, of equal size, occupy- 

 ing the two foci of the ellipse. In those spores in which 

 the above growth had taken place, the nuclei were less dis- 

 tinct than in those in which no change had occurred, and in 

 some instances the two nuclei had broken up into several ; 

 the spores also had increased in size. This is just what 

 Tiilasne noticed in Peziza vesiculosa, for he states that in 

 that plant the spores which produced a Mycelium, as well as 

 those which he calls the spermatophorous spores, increased 

 in size sensibly before vegetating, and that their oily con- 

 tents lost at the same time their homogeneity and assumed a 

 granular aspect. There was another remarkable circum- 

 stance connected with this change of form and germination 

 in the spores of Peziza aurantia, and that was the contem- 

 poraneous appearance of an enormous mass of minute stafi"- 

 like bodies, preciselysimilar to those mentioned above as occur- 



