PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 197 



the order is, that the fruit consists of sporidia contained in asci, that 

 the hymenium or fruit-bearing surface is more or less exposed, and 

 that the substance of the plant is soft. The character of the genus 

 Geoglossum is that the receptacle or fruit-bearing part is club-shaped, 

 and that the hymenium surrounds the club. Seven distinct species 

 are found in England. 



If a longitudinal section of the plant be made, it will be found on 

 examination with the microscope that the entire substance consists of 

 nothing more than delicate filaments, like the threads of a common 

 mould, interwoven and more or less compacted, and that these threads, 

 as they approach the external surface of the plant, become differen- 

 tiated into what are called asci and paraphyses. The asci are little 

 elongated bags of transparent texture, which contain, within each of 

 them, eight dark brown spores closely packed together. It is these 

 dark brown spores which partly give to the plant its black and dingy 

 appearance. They are for the most part 7 septate, but some may bo 

 found with only 3 septa, and others divided into as many as 14 

 distinct cells. These spores, or sporidia, are the fruit of the plant, 

 and by germinating under certain conditions are believed to reproduce 

 the parent form. 



In looking at the fruit, one cannot but be struck by the very 

 ample provision made for the propagation of the plant. The spores 

 are all but innumerable, and are carefully packed away in parcels of 

 eight in delicate little bags ready for future use. In what condition 

 they remain during the spring and summer, no one has yet discovered. 

 The plant does not appear until late in autumn, so that they may be 

 supposed to lie dormant in the ground during the greater portion 

 of the year. 



I have mentioned paraphyses at part of the fructifying surface. 

 These delicate filaments are believed by many mycologists to be 

 simply abortive asci, but I have noticed in the case of Geoglossum 

 that they occasionally thicken and give origin to distinct uniseptate 

 spores. 



In conclusion, I have only to remark that this plant, like many 

 other species of fungi, consists of nothing more than septate threads 

 like the threads of a common mould ; and that it differs from a mould 

 only in the nature of its fructification, and the way in which these 

 threads are compacted into an object of definite shape, and consider- 

 able consistence. The same remark applies to mushrooms and many 

 other species of fungi, and indicates the vast resources of nature 

 in multiplying forms from one simple element, a delicate tubular 

 filament. 



F. C. S. Roper, Esq., F.L.S., then read a "Note on the Wall 

 Pellitory." The Parietaria officinalis, or Wall Pellitory, is a plant 

 so common on old walls and buildings that it is probably well known 

 to most of our members. It has, however, some peculiarities of struc- 

 ture, not generally noticed in botanical works, but at the same time 

 of much interest to the microscopical observer. As the minute exami- 

 nation of the structure of both animal and vegetable organisms is of 

 great interest to the really scientific investigator of the wonders of 



