130 CURREY, ON FUNGI. 



for short distances at the points of rupture into a flat band, 

 which was seen to be traversed by five bright narrow lines, 

 running longitudinally in the manner shown roughly in fig. 42. 

 These are the markings which Mr. Henfrey has explained as 

 arising from the deposit of a spiral fibre, but which seemed to 

 me to be caused by a ridge in the membrane. I should cer- 

 tainly mistrust my own opinion when opposed to Mr. Henfrey 's|; 

 but Mr. Busk, who carefully examined some specimens of the 

 threads, has stated to me his decided opinion against the exis- 

 tence of any fibre. The editors of the ' Micrographie Diction- 

 ary' have objected that a ridge round a tube is a structiire un- 

 known in the vegetable world, but circular ridges were observed 

 by Mr. Berkeley, some time since, in the capillitium of Arcyria 

 umbrina, and longitudinal ridges have been noticed by M. 

 Trecul in the vessels of Impatiens fulva. The fact of the 

 ridge taking a sjnral direction can hardly be of importance, 

 more particularly when it is considered that with reference 

 to the narrow band of membrane, by the twisting of which 

 (in some species at least) the threads are formed, the ridges 

 are, in fact, longitudinal. Pringsheim describes the outer 

 coat of the spores of SphcBroplea annulina as covered with 

 ridges running, as it were, in meridian lines from pole to 

 pole of the spores. 



Trichia ? — On very rotten fir wood, at Weybridge, Surrey, 

 January, 1856. 



This is a plant of which the generic position is somewhat 

 doubtfid, but it comes nearer to Trichia than to anything 

 else, and as I have only once found it, it will be better perhaps 

 to place it, provisionally at least, in that genus. It difiers 

 from the known species of Trichia in the shape of its peri- 

 dium (which alone would not be of much importance), and 

 in its capillitium. The peridium is globular, of a dull 

 tawny colour, and supported upon a comparatively long 

 stem ; the shape will be seen by a reference to fig. 43, which 

 shows two specimens of the fungus slightly magnified. 

 The spores are yellow and globose, and about half the size of 

 the spores of Trichia chrysosperma. The capillitium consists 

 of a mass of reticulated threads, not having the usual spiral 

 markings peculiar to Trichia, but spread out at short inter- 

 vals into broad membranous expansion, the latter having a 

 chequered appearance, somewhat like that of the scalariform 

 vessels in other plants. I am not certain whether these 

 expansions are formed of a single layer of membrane, or 

 whether they are hollow sacs, but I rather think the latter. 

 Fig. 41 shows a fragment of the capillitiiim, which bears a 

 slight resemblance to the capillitium of Lycoyala terrestris, 



