SPOTTING OF LEAVES. 379 



uniform footstalk, though not of common oc- 

 currence. Thus a plant, that itself arises from 

 decay, is found to constitute a soil for another ; 

 and the termination of this chain of efficiency is 

 hidden from us. 



But the leaves of many vegetables often become 

 singularly spotted during some part of the sum- 

 mer 3 and such spots have not certainly been effected 

 by the growth of cryptogamous plants, natural 

 decay, or the punctures of insects, the usual agents 

 in these cases. A very indifferent observer of 

 these things, in strolling round his garden, must 

 have remarked how uniformly and singularly the 

 foliage of some of the varieties of the strawberry 

 are spotted, and corroded as it were into little 

 holes ; whereas other kinds have seldom any of 

 these marks visible on taem, I have fancied that 

 these spottings were occasioned by the influence of 

 solar heat; a shower of rain falls, small drops 

 collect and remain upon the leaf of the pknt ; the 

 sun then darts out, converting all these globules 



Laminae loose, irregular, generally four in a set, rather nu- 

 merous, broad, white, changing to btu% and then pink. 



Stipes solid, tapering upwards, rather thick immediately below 

 the pileus, three inches high, thick as a reed, white, and often 

 downy, wrapper at the base. 



Many of this species of singular plant I found in October, 1819, 

 springing from a confluent mass of a. caseus. Bolton's a. pulvina- 

 tus is something like our plant ; but he describes his under side as 

 perfectly flat, and represents a sigularity in the termination of his 

 laminae, which is not observable in our a. surrectus. 



