196 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



articulations, which is also the case with the fruit stalks, which bear 

 on their apices, not naked spores, but bladder-like sporangia enclosing 

 sporidia or spores. It is common on decaying fruits, paste, and vege- 

 table matters, and Mucor mucedo is very often met with, though, 

 strange to say, I have not been able to meet with a single specimen. 

 I have, however, a beautiful specimen of a more uncommon one — 

 Mucor tenerrimus — which is developed in large quantities in a Wardian 

 case I have set up, and in which I put the trimmings of the ferns 

 chopped small to lighten the soil, and shortly after the whole case was 

 one mass of mycelium. Its fruit is scarcely visible to the naked 

 eye, but when viewed with the half-inch it is an object of rare beauty 

 and elegance. 



The result of my examination of its sporangia and sporidia is, 

 that the sporangia are about equal in size to the spores of Aspergillus, 

 whilst the sporidia — which are liberated on the bursting of the spo- 

 rangium, which takes place on the application of a drop of water — 

 are very minute indeed, and elliptic in form. They displayed great 

 molecular activity, and in consequence I was unable to measure them. 

 Mucor stolonifer, and its life history, is a subject dwelt upon by Professor 

 Wyville Thomson in his address before the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh, and he gives the results of the most recent investigations by De 

 Bary, Pasteur, and others. He states that from the mycelium, at certain 

 points, long, rather wide tubes start from the surface, on which the 

 fungus is growing, obliquely into the air, and after running along 

 for a time, again dip down and give origin to other tufts of myceline 

 tube roots. At the point where these roots come off, as at the bud 

 of a strawberry runner, a little tuft of tubular stems rise up vertically, 

 and end in round vesicles or sporangia, which are at first entirely filled 

 with transparent jn'otoplasm, which ultimately breaks up into a mass of 

 black polygonal spores. These spores are thus produced by no process 

 of true reproduction, but are simply separated particles of the proto- 

 plasm of the parent plant, and may be regarded as buds, since 

 they are capable of producing new plants like themselves. True 

 reproductive spores exist in the secondary form of fruit of the Mucor, 

 and this is the case also with Aspergillus. Thus we see these plants are 

 reproduced in two ways — by buds and by true spores bom in asci. 



Eastbourne Natural History Society. 



A meeting of the members of the Eastbourne Natural History 

 Society was held at the Society's Eooms, Lismore Eoad, on Friday, 

 December 20, when about 30 members were present. Mr. Roper 

 occupied the chair, and the minutes having been read and confirmed, 

 the Hon. Secretary read a paper " On Geoglossum Difforme or Earth- 

 Tongue," by C. J. Muller, Esq. 



The plant belongs to the order Elvellacei, which includes within 

 its limits the rare and delicious Morel (Morchella esculenta), the no 

 less favourite curled Helvclla (Helvella crispa), the lovely Peziza 

 {Peziza coccinea), the curious and elegant Ascobolus ciliatis, and 

 many other genera attractive to the Fungologist. The character of 



