Meyen's Report /or 1839 on Physiological Botany. 4(j;> 



iiig organs in the Trichoyastrce ^nd. Phalloidce, and found that 

 these groups also belong to the true Hytnenomycet(C. If a 

 young plant of Lycoperdon is cut through, the internal fleshy 

 mass is found to be intersected by small, long, retiform, 

 branched and anastomosing cavities, whose whole surface is 

 covered by an hymeniuni, which is similarly constructed to 

 that of Boletus and Agaricus, but does not possess a trace of 

 those organs which have been called anthers. Mr. Berkeley 

 thinks that the genera Geastrum, Scleroderma, Batarrea, Tu- 

 lostoma, etc., have a similar structure. In Phallus very young 

 individuals must be examined if we wish to find the hyme- 

 nium ; it appears exactly as in Lycoperdon, only the basidia 

 appear all of them to carry spores. If there be more than 

 four spores on one basidium the additional ones are placed 

 laterally. Here, as well as in Lycoperdon, the basidia collapse 

 and are not to be found at a later period. 



In our former Report* we mentioned a treatise of M. Le- 

 veille's which had been laid before the Philomathic Society at 

 Paris in 1837; it is now publishedf, although apparently a 

 little altered ; moreover there are unfortunately no figures, 

 which are absolutely necessary to illustrate \\. Leveille's 

 views. M. Lcveille contends against the idea of Tui'pin, that 

 the Uredines are produced from diseased Globuline, by which 

 name M. Turpin means all sap-globules of plants, however dif- 

 ferent they may be in their chemical composition. Moreover 

 M. Leveille condemns the view of M. Unger according to which 

 the Uredines are produced by a diseased aftection of the respi- 

 I'atory organs ; for, according to the author's observations, they 

 are true fungi, among which Persoon placed them. When, 

 says M. Leveille, these productions are observed in a very 

 young state, there are seen under the discoloured epidermis 

 very fine colourless ramified filaments which are interwoven 

 with each other. When a Uredo is formed, there appears in 

 the centre of this woven mass a fleshy spot or point, which may 

 be compared to a Sclerotiuni, &c. &c ; one surface of this 

 nucleus reposes on the parenchym of the leaf, the other is in 

 contact with the epidermis, and is covered with pedunculated, 

 or more rarely with sessile spores. As the fungus increases 

 the epidermis is extended and bursts, and the spores are ex- 

 posed. The ^-Ecidia, although possessing a more complicated 

 structure, have a similar process of development, which M. 

 Leveille describes in Xhixi o\ Euphorbia y the pecuHar peridium 



* Berlin, 1S38, pp. 162, 163. 



t lleclieiches sur le developpement des Uredinees. — Ann. des Sc. Nat. 

 torn. xi. part, bot, p. 5 — 16. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vii. 2 H 



