FUNGI AND LICHENS. 1 17 



inches in diameter, of a bright, glowing orange colour, 

 and often twenty or thirty of them growing together 

 within a space of two or three yards. 1 Watch them 

 carefully, and if it is a bright day, ever and anon a 

 little puff of delicate smoke will be jerked out from 

 the disc ; touch them gently with a piece of grass, 

 and another and another puff will follow. These are 

 the spores, or microscopical seeds, forced out in a 

 little cloud, and so it is presumed the species in- 

 creases its kind. 



It would be easy to enumerate many others of the 

 same kind. One dirty white species, not more than 

 an inch in diameter, grows singly on the ground by 

 the side of paths in woods. If scratched, a yellow 

 juice oozes like blood from the wound. 3 Another 

 kind, not more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 grows on damp rotten wood and old stumps. The 

 disc is of a beautiful crimson, surrounded by a margin 

 of long, brown hairs. By the side of brooks, water- 

 courses, swamps, gullies, and in the dampest places 

 in the wood, some one or more of these Peziza will 

 be found in spring or autumn, or through the 

 summer, if not too dry. Fir woods invariably afford 

 a neat little species not much larger than the head 

 of a good-sized pin, but growing in companies on the 

 little dead twigs or the larger branches of larch and 

 pine. The disc is of a deep orange, but the margin 

 and outside nearly white, and covered with downy 

 hairs. When the weather is dry the cups will be 

 closed, and the orange disc invisible; but with 



1 Peziza succosa. 2 Peziza aurantia. 



