^iutumnal Cryptogamic Plants. 443 



situations under our forest trees ; or the elegant velvety and 

 agate-ribboned Anriciilareie, or the tawny sponge-like Clava- 

 riae. There, too, is the singular iNiduluria, uiiicii you may 

 find in great perfection on decayed posts, or the decomposing 

 wooden rail of the flower border, if not better provided with 

 tha living, glossy and antiquated box, and 1 have even known 

 it to spring up on the slender stick of a pot-plant, as if forcing 

 itself into notice by associating with the more general favorites 

 of its sister vegetables. This is an elegant fungus ; resem- 

 bling, as its name imports, a nest, and the sporangia, the 

 e2,gs. These sporangia, (kidney-shaped bodies, which in some 

 species are furnished with elastic umbilical cords or filaments) 

 contain the sporules, or incipient germs of the future plant, 

 and are analogous to seeds or still more to the minute bulb- 

 like buds of germiferous stems. And should your ramble 

 carry you to some dry sandy plain, you may there find, blow- 

 ing about in the wind, the singular Geastrum, or "star of the 

 earth," with a double peridium, the outer being hygrometric, 

 and like the far-famed Rose of Jericho (Anastatica hierochun- 

 tina,) will expand or close as moistened or dried. And still 

 no less curious, yet far more philosophically mysterious, is 

 the rapidly evolving, and as rapidly decaying Phallus, one 

 species of which (P. impudicus,) is too often an intruder 

 among the odors of the garden, scenting the air with its 

 ammoniacal fumes for several rods around. If you have found 

 it, pluck it fearlessly, and use it as a gayer bouquet ; the 

 astonishing fetor becomes, on nearer acquaintance, a pleasant 

 and rather agreeable scent. A late English botanist men- 

 tions the fact, which was first noticed by Greville, and to 

 his testimony I may add my humble own. 



Rut if you are tired of the frail offspring of a silent night, 

 which perish as rapid as they grow, you may delight your 

 mind and feast your eyes on the verdant carpet of those rich 

 green mosses which are spread over that half concealed rock, 

 or are creeping in exuberant beauty upon the living stems of 

 the noble sons of the forest ; or those gray beard lichens, 

 giving the appearance of honorable and honest age to the pen- 

 dent branches of others less lofty. Nay, even the paling of 

 the fences which you pass, the unshapen rocks of the neigh- 

 boring wall, the sides of yonder venerable barn and no less 

 ancient family cottage, are covered with lettered inscriptions 

 of time and Flora's busy and united labors. Read and learn, 

 from nature's volmne, which even dreary winter cannot shut 

 from your contem|)lation : or perhaps a lingering and yet ver- 

 dant fern has attracted your notice, or the ceaseless babbling 

 brook, not yet subjected to the bondage of the conquering 

 frost, contains manv a beautiful and beaded filament of some 



