302 Miscellaneous. 



agency under several aspects, especially in the formation of extensive 

 sheets of rock. 



It now has become proper to bring to a close these few observa- 

 tions, or rather this enumeration of heads of Natural-History sub- 

 jects, by expressing a confident hope that this compilation will find 

 many and well-qualified interpreters, and will be useful to geologists 

 in general. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On some Points in the Anatomy of the Genus Fistulina. 

 By J. DE Seynes. 



The species of the higher Fungi in which several forms of repro- 

 ductive bodies have been indicated are still few in number. Three 

 years ago I pointed out, in Fistulina bufflosso'ides, Bull., some small 

 sporiform bodies analogous to those to which, in many species of 

 Fungi, M. Tulasne has ascribed the part of spore-producers and 

 given the name of conidia. Further investigations on this subject 

 have enabled me to make several observations, which I request 

 permission to lay before the Academy. 



The parenchyma of a Fistulina is composed of elongated cells of 

 different calibre, increasing in size towards the interior. This tissue 

 is traversed by some very long and generally narrower cells, filled 

 with a red and not granular liquid, which becomes solid and brittle 

 when dried. The transverse septa are so far apart that these cells 

 might be taken for true vessels. I have every reason to believe 

 that it is the same system of organs to which the name of latici- 

 ferous vessels has been given in the milky Agarics ; I shall call them 

 simply reservoirs of proper juice. I have observed them in many not 

 milky Agarics and in a Clavaria (C. aurantia, Pers.). In Fistulina 

 the cells which form them do not originate entirely in the inter- 

 cellular spaces. Upon an ordinary cell of the parenchyma, or at 

 its extremity, a csecal process makes its appearance, filled with a 

 yellow granular substance more abundant than that which also 

 occurs in the mother cell ; this substance appears to condense into a 

 red liquid, which occupies the bottom of the csecal cell. The latter 

 elongates, and soon a transverse septum is formed near the point 

 where it springs from the mother cell. This septum of course in- 

 terrupts all direct communication with the mother cell, and it is 

 even probable that subsequently there is a solution of continuity 

 between these two cells; for when the reseivoirs of proper juice are 

 examined after they have arrived at their full development, they can 

 no longer be found in direct connexion with the ordinary cells of the 

 parenchyma. Near the upper surface of the pileus of Fistulina, 

 these reservoirs, which are sometimes ramified, take a tortuous and 

 rather spiral direction, which does not extend to the cells of the 

 surrounding tissue ; they are very numerous at this part, and in the 

 dry fungus give to this subepidermic portion of the parenchyma 

 the appearance of a black line. 



