LEAF FUNGI. 5 
family Anisonemidz and order Flagellata-Enstostomata ; but as we 
fear the foregoing description can hardly do justice to Mr. Kent’s 
sketch, we refer our readers to the ‘“ Manual of the Infusoria,” 
which they will find reviewed in the following pages. 
LEAF FUNGI. 
By Rev. J. E. Vizz, M.A., F.R.M.S., ETC. 
UNGI attack leaves of all kinds; or, to put it in another way, 
leaves of all kinds are liable to invite fungi to grow on them. 
It matters not whether the leaf be alive, and to external appearances 
quite healthy, or not; whether it be beginning to decay, or has 
already gone a considerable step towards death ; whether the leaf 
has lost every atom of vitality, fungi are ready to grow just where 
they find the exactly suitable place for their spores to germinate. 
You may, if you like, examine the leaves of the earliest plants of 
spring, even before the severity of winter has passed, and you will 
find them covered with pustules of fungi. ‘Take, as an instance, 
the “adium viole (Schum) and the 4c. ranunculacearum (D.C.), 
both of them good examples of the cluster cups; with a common 
pocket lens they may be examined, and they show an amount of 
beauty rarely surpassed. And then, as the snow of winter dissolves, 
and the days lengthen towards summer, you get a constant succes- 
sion of leaf fungi. They live on the hedge bank, the canal side, 
the turnpike road, the sides of the waterfall, the edge of the 
mountain, the thickets of the wood. Sometimes they prefer shelter 
from the bleak and cutting winds ; at others you will find them on 
spots which are quite exposed. Occasionally they may be seen in 
the bottom of ditches partly dried. Go where you will, if you have 
an eye for leaf fungi, you will be tolerably sure to meet with them, 
unless you get into houses in the city, and even they are not 
absolutely free; the gardens attached to them are very apt to pro- 
duce leaf fungi. Some have a special aptitude for green and hot 
houses. Moreover, there are some fungi, such as the A@itrula 
paludosa (Fr), which luxuriate only in leaves, such as those of oak 
fallen from the parent trees, quite dead, but immersed in stagnant 
and other times running water. The cryptogamic botanist who 
wants to get leaf fungi may always find them by taking a stroll in 
the country. Furnished with very few tools, he may make sure if 
he be a young beginner that his attempts at discovering some leaves 
with fungi on them will soon be rewarded ; and if he has passed 
through the first stages of mycology he will soon recognise in his 
walks forms of fungi on leaves which are as old friends to him, 
