ISO UNCERTAIN APPEARANCE OF THE FUNGI. 



The certain appearance of many of the fungi 

 can by no means be relied upon, they being as ir- 

 regular in their visits as some of the lepidopterous 

 class of insects. It is probable that decayed vege- 

 table matter is in most cases the source whence 

 this race of plants arises, while a certain degree 

 of moisture and temperature, acting in concord 

 with a precise state of decay, appears necessary 

 to influence the sprouting of the seminal or radi- 

 cal matter. The beautiful floriform hydnum 

 (hydnum floriforme) is very irregular in its ap- 

 pearance, whence it is a species seldom found by 

 the botanist. The mitred helvella (helvella mitra) 

 will abound, and then years may intervene and 

 not a specimen be discovered. In 1825, a little, 

 gray puff-ball (lycoperdon cinereum), about the size 

 of a large pin's head, abounded, covering patches 

 of grass in all our fields, looking like froth, and in 

 decay, when discharging its seed, like a spongy 

 curd; though it had not been observed, not hav- 

 ing vegetated, or very sparingly, for upwards of 

 ten years. Others again, particularly the ligneous 

 ones, remain permanently fixed for a long period. 

 The fingered clavaria (clavaria hypoxylon) may 

 be found vegetating on the stump of an old 

 hazel in the orchard for twenty years in succes- 

 sion. That this elegant race has attracted so few 

 votaries many reasons may be assigned. The 

 agarics in particular are very versatile in their 



