304: THE MICROSCOPE. 



Beneath the external dark-coloured reticulated mem- 

 brane is a second integument, smooth and transparent, 

 easily separated by maceration, although it resists the 

 action of chemical agents, and is not coloured by iodine. 

 The simple cavity of the internal spore is filled with 

 minute granular particles and fatty globules, suspended 

 in a fluid probably albuminous, as well as the various 

 chemical salts found by Kiegel, and upon which its peculiar 

 flavour depends. 



" Two new British fungi" are figured and described by 

 the Kev. M. J. Berkeley, in vol. xxv. p. 431, Linnean 

 Soc. Trans. Peziza pygmoea, Plate I. No. 4, is a remark- 

 ably interesting specimen of a genus which presents much 

 variety in form. The description given of it is, " that it is 

 about J inch high, the stem often splitting or branching 

 out into several divisions, each of which is terminated by 

 a minute cup, giving the plant the appearance of a Ditiola, 

 or a Tympanis. Each cup produces other smaller cups on 

 its surface ; the branched and young cups resemble the 

 genus Solenia: in a specimen found at Wimbledon, the 

 mass of secondary cups gave the plant almost the ap- 

 pearance of a small Gyromitra." The proliferous form is 

 shown at Plate I. No. 5. The colour of the mature plant 

 is a bright apricot, whitish and tormentose at the base of 

 the stem. Found in swampy places, rotten gorse, &c. at 

 Ascot, Wimbledon, &c. Peziza belongs to the Ascomycetous 

 fungi ; the genus contains numerous species, and many of 

 them are brightly coloured, as in the very pretty P. bicolor, 

 Plate I. No. 1. Tulasne says that some of them have a 

 secondary fructification, consisting of stylospores. They 

 are mostly found growing on trunks of trees, dead 

 wood, &c. 



We now pass to the examination of Lichens ; in these 

 plants, as in the Fungi, the germination of the spore 

 consists in the emission of a hollow filament from some 

 part of its surface. This filament, which is simply an 

 extension of the spore-membrane, branches repeatedly, 

 and spreads over the surface on which the spore has beeu 

 sown ; at the same time it divides by numerous septa 

 which occur at irregular intervals. By the intertwining 

 of the resultant ramifications, a stroma is formed, to which 



