671 



ply that the agaric is the entire produce of a seed of another agaric, 

 as an oak tree is the entire produce of an acorn or seed of another 

 oak tree ? If so, it is quite at variance with our own observations : we 

 believe that the seed of an agaric does not produce another agaric 

 except as an ultimate result, and then not one but many. We have 

 no proof of the existence of isolated agarics on a single spot of ground 

 any more than of isolated acorns. We have never found an isolated 

 agaric. Again, a crop of grass springing from rotting agarics is com- 

 pared to a phcenix,* a simile we cannot understand. The old fable 

 was, that the ashes of one phoenix produced another phoenix, not 

 that a phcenix sprung from some foreign substance going to decay. 



But we feel that we are not doing the author justice in thus criti- 

 cising observations which the reporter may have been unable to com- 

 prehend, and we beg to assure him that we shall be happy to publish 

 his paper entire in the pages of the ' Phytologist,' so that all our bo- 

 tanists may have an opjDortunity of reading and judging for them- 

 selves. There is, however, one passage which we think it desirable 

 to quote, as tending to throw great weight into the scale in favour of 

 our theory. He says the agarics are ^^ situated either entirely on the 

 outside of the ring or on the outer border of the grass which composes 

 Ur Now we must confess that in those numerous rings which we 

 have examined in Sussex, Surrey and Herefordshire, this remarkable 

 fact had escaped us, but seeing it thus laid down as a simple fact, and 

 not brought to bear on either theory or hypothesis, we cannot but ac- 

 cept it, and our readers will in a moment see how directly it tends to 

 establish our view as to the radiation of the mycelium or real fungus 

 from a common centre, and its development of blossoms or agarics at 

 the extremities. 



Remarks on the Banana in Navigator s Islands, on Achillea serrata, 

 on Alyssum calycinum, and on Juncus diffusus. By W. L. Not- 

 cut r, Esq. 



Banana. In the 'Phytologist' for March, 1843 (Phytol. i. 527, 

 528), there is an extract from a letter addressed by Mr. N. B. Ward 

 to Prof. Graham, respecting the introduction of the banana into the 

 Navigator's Islands by the late Rev. J. Williams. Having, within 

 the last day or two, been favoured with the company of an esteemed 



* " A vigorous crop of grass arising, like a Phoenix, from the ashes of its prede- 

 cessor.'' 



