132 THE BELL-SHAPED NIDCLARIA . 



for when the plant is mature, and begins to dry, 

 the outer coating cracks, and tears these filaments 

 asunder, and gives the seminal matter, if contained 

 in this part, a free passage for escape. 



The bell-shaped nidularia (nidularia campa- 

 nulata) is common with us, the smooth (nidularia 

 laevis) is much less so. I do not mention them 

 on account of their rarity, but to notice the 

 singular size of the seeds of this genus. The prin- 

 ciple, by which nearly the whole of the fungi are 

 continued, is in most instances obscure. A dust, 

 considered as seminal, is observable in some of the 

 genera ; in others, even this is imperceptible ; but 

 in the nidularia the actual seeds, for they are not 

 capsules, are visible at the bottom of the bell- 

 shaped receptacle, of the size of a turnip seed, or 

 of a large, flattened pin's head; loose, but at- 

 tached by a filament, which in the striated species 

 (nidularia striata), in moist weather, I have drawn 

 out to nearly three inches in length. This thread 

 appears designed to secure the vegetation of the 

 seed, by affording it the power of deriving nutri- 

 ment from the parent plant, during the period it 

 is exerting its strength to vegetate in the earth. 

 Heavy rains, I apprehend, fill the bells, and float 

 out the seeds in the spring months, the filaments 

 then stretching to their full extent. In severe 

 weather we often find these bells emptied of their 

 contents ; and from observing the excrement of 



