132 CUllREY, ON FUNGI. 



Choiromyces meandriformis, Tul. Rhizopogon meandri- 

 formis, Corda. Tuber album, Sow. — A single specimen of 

 tliis very rare truffle occurred in my own garden, at Black- 

 heath, in the month of November, 1855. I believe only 

 one other specimen of it has been found in England since 

 Sowerby's time, and that was by Mr. Broome, in Marl- 

 borough Forest. Mr. Berkeley tells me he has an authentic 

 specimen of Sowerby's Tuber album, and that it is the same 

 plant. ]\Iy specimen was foinid near the surface, in a some- 

 what stiff soil, very near the roots of a walnut tree, and in a 

 spot where but few rays of the sun can ever penetrate, and 

 those only for a very short time in the day. It is possible 

 that other specimens may have been destroyed, as the ground 

 for a considerable space within two feet of the spot had been 

 dug out to a depth of several feet for repairing the founda- 

 tion of a wall. With the exception of this distiirbance the 

 ground had not been moved for years, being in a part of 

 the garden where it was impossible to induce anything to 

 grow. A description of this plant is to be found in Tulasne's 

 ' Fungi hypogpei,' and in the sixth vol. of Corda' s ' Icones 

 Fungorum.' The spores are globular and covered with 

 sharp excrescences. Fig. 45 represents an ascus with spores 

 magnified 220 diameters. The ascus figured contained only 

 six spores, but the usual number is eight. The spores are of 

 a pale yellow colour. I made a careful search last autumn 

 (1856), in the hope of finding more specimens, but without 

 success. 



Claviceps pu7'pu7X'a, Till., ^Annales des Sciences naturelles,' 

 ser. 3, vol. xx, p. 45. Sphceria pmrpturea, Fr. S. M., ii, 

 325, &c. 



Claviceps microcephala, Wallr., &c. 



These two plants, of which the synonyms are too nume- 

 rous to mention here, have not hitherto, as far as I am aware, 

 been found in their natural state in this coimtry, although 

 they must be of frequent occurrence. They are the ultimate 

 produce of the ergot of rye and other grasses, and the 

 former [Claviceps purpured) has been grown artificially by 

 Messrs. Berkeley and Broome, by sowing the ergot of rye 

 in common garden mould. I have myself procured the 

 growth of the former [Claviceps purpurea) sparingly, and of 

 Claviceps microcephala abundantly, by merely keeping the 

 two kinds of ergot in a continually moist atmosphere. The 

 nature of ergot, as is well known, had been for many years 

 a subject of discussion, and the views of botanists with regard 

 to it were apparently tending to the opinion in favour of its 

 being a diseased state of the grain of the grasses in which 



