22 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



sometimes made improperly, holes were burnt in the clothing: he 

 thereupon proposed a dilute solution of carbolic acid ; it is easy to mix, 

 perfectly soluble, and has no action upon fabrics in the diluted state. 



Nucleated Sporidia. — On this subject, of great interest to fungolo- 

 gists, Mr. M. C. Cooke gives a capital paper in the last number of the 

 • Quekett Club Journal.' If, he says, we take one of the cup-shaped 

 fungi (Peziza aurantia, or P. vesiculosa) when mature, in its fresh 

 state, and cut it down through the centre, we shall observe first that 

 the outside and inside of the cup varies somewhat in texture, as well 

 as in colour. That the inside has usually a smooth, delicate, waxy 

 appearance, and, if exposed to the light for a few minutes, little 

 smoky puffs of the minute spores will from time to time be ejected 

 from the surface, as of miniature discharges of fairy artillery. By 

 cutting a thin slice from the cut surface of the section and placing it 

 under the microscope, a good notion of its general structure will be 

 obtained. The slice should be as thin as a sharp knife and a steady 

 hand can accomplish. If this slice be placed in a drop of water, or 

 pure glycerine, on a slide, and covered with thin glass, then submitted 

 to a slight pressure, it may be examined freely with a quarter-inch 

 objective. Towards the inner surface, which is the Jiymenium, numerous 

 transparent tubes, or cylindrical sacs, present their upper extremities, 

 whilst their lower ends coalesce with the cellular substance of the 

 cup. These cylindrical bodies are the thecce or asci, mixed with 

 thread-like filaments called paraplnjses. Sometimes the paraphyses 

 are simple, at others branched, and either attenuated or clavate at 

 their tips. In a few cases the club-like extremities of the paraphyses 

 are coloured, but usually the asci and their contents, as well as the 

 paraphyses, are colourless. In this genus the paraphyses are 

 important features in the determination of species, since they offer 

 considerable variation in different species. What may be their 

 special function has not been satisfactorily determined. Some 

 authors have suggested that they may be barren asci ; but this sug- 

 gestion is far from confirmation by fact, no observations having yet 

 traced the development of paraphyses into asci, or explained why they 

 are so distinct from asci even in the earliest stages at which they can 

 be traced. Similar bodies are also present in the cups of lichens. 

 The asci in their earliest stages are filled with a granular matter, 

 which ultimately is collected (normally) into eight spherical, ellip- 

 tical, or elongated sporidia, which fill the ascus, and when mature are 

 discharged by rupture at the apex, in little pufiy clouds of sporidia, 

 as already intimated. 



NOTES AND MEMOKANDA. 



Death of M. Edouard Claparede. — Owing to the press of various 

 matters for the past two or three months, the notice of the death of 

 this eminent zoologist has been " crushed out " for want of space. His 

 death occurred some time since at Sienna, at the early age of thirty- 



