618 



secretary of the Society, for a very masterly abstract of Mr. Smee's 

 paper which appeared in the ' Zoologist' for January, 1845. 



It is however with Botany alone that we must treat here, and the 

 only botanical paper in the part before us is on a monstrosity in Agari- 

 cus personatus, by Dr. Lankester, although we find but little of in- 

 terest in the monstrosity itself, and not the slightest connexion 

 between the monstrosity and the microscope ; yet, for all this, there 

 is a matter of great moment discussed in the course of the paper, and 

 one which we think cannot fail to interest our readers. 



In the first place let us premise that the monstrosity is thus descri- 

 bed. The "agaric was dried up and decaying from the effects of frost. [!] 

 In all its parts, however, it exhibited a normal structure, with the ex- 

 ception of the pileus, in the centre of which, directly over the inser- 

 tion of the stipes into the hymenium, a second and smaller hymenium 

 was developed. The gills of the smaller hymenium were uppermost, 

 and, presented towards the light, the edges were covered with the 

 pileus, which gradually united itself with the pileus of the lower 

 hymenium." A monstrosity very nearly if not exactly identical with 

 this, was described long since by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, and we 

 have seen others too frequently to consider them worthyof espe- 

 cial notice. The * matter of moment ' is contained in the following 

 passage. 



"Before concluding this paper, perhaps I may be allowed to make 

 one or two remarks on the Morphology of the Cryptogamia. It is 

 only by the observation of abnormal forms like the present, that we 

 shall be enabled to point out what are the real relations of one form 

 of fungus to another, and classify them according to their natural affi- 

 nities. Morphology has done much for classification amongst phae- 

 nogamous plants, but little or nothing amongst the cryptogaraous. 

 The ' Transactions of the Microscopical Society' contain, however, 

 the record of a single fact of monstrosity amongst the mosses, which 

 has afforded an interesting illustration of the application of the prin- 

 ciples of Morphology in the higher departments of the animal king- 

 dom ; Professor E. Forbes, in his paper on the Morphology of the 

 SertulariadcB, having pointed out the analogy between the change of 

 structure taking place in those animals and the mosses, from the simi- 

 larity of form in their organs of nutrition and reproduction. Have 

 we, then, in this fungus an analogous condition to that which has 

 been found in the higher plants? If in the fungi we regard the pileus 

 and stipes as the representatives of the leaf or nutritive organ in the 

 higher plants, then the hymenium must be regarded as the analogue 



