ig6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1715. 



all which sorts he gives figures. Subjoined to the whole is a communication 

 from Lancisi, concerning the so called lapis fungarius ; viz. that although this 

 mushroom-producer has the name of a stone, it ought not to be reckoned of 

 that genus, it being really no other than a mass or congeries of roots, seeds 

 and juices, coagulated with earth into, as it were, a stony substance. On 

 which pouring water, and setting it in a warm place, it loosens its hardened 

 substance; and by mollifying its fibres, and moistening its concrete juices, out 

 of its clefts and chinks, the mushrooms spring, as they do in other places from 

 simple dung and loose earth. And it is also further to be noted, that when 

 this stony mass has thus yielded these its offspring, the remainder grows light, 

 porous, and decayed, its nutritive juices being then exhausted. 



A short History of the several New Stars that have appeared within these 

 150 Years ; with an Account of the Return of that in Collo Cygni, and of 

 its Continuance observed this Year 1715. N° 346, p. 354.* 



Whether it be owing to the greater diligence of the moderns, or that in 

 reality no such thing has happened for many ages past, I will not undertake to 

 determine; but this is certain that, within the space of the last 150 years, 

 more discoveries have been made of changes among the fixed stars, than in all 

 antiquity before. And though it be said that Hipparchus, on occasion of a 

 new star that appeared in his time, was induced to number the stars, and make 

 the first catalogue of them, which was, in the opinion of Pliny, Res vel Deo 

 improba ; yet neither he nor any of the ancients have left us the place of that 

 new star, to compare with those lately seen, one of which might perhaps be 

 the same with it, re-appearing after a long period of years. Now though 

 several authors have severally described those that have been seen nearer to our 

 times, it may not perhaps be amiss here to give a short recapitulation of what 

 was principally remarkable in each of them, with the times of their first appear- 

 ance, as far as can be collected. 



And 1st. That in the chair of Cassiopeia, was not seen by Cornelius Gemma 

 on the 8th of November 157'2, who says, he that night considered that part 

 of heaven in a very serene sky, and saw it not: but that the next night, 

 Nov. 9, it appeared with a splendor surpassing all the fixed stars, and scarcely 

 less bright than Venus. This was not seen by Tycho Brahe before the lllh 

 of the same month, but from thence he assures us that it gradually decreased 



• This anonymous paper, on the new stars, was probably written by Dr. Halley, then secretary 

 to the Royal Society, as the composition very much resembles his style and manner. 



