ON UNDERGROUND FUNGI. 



ON UNDERGROUND FUNCil (FUNGI HYPOG^EL^ 



BY THK REV. M. J. BERKELKY, M.A., K.K.S. 



Read before the Society, October ^th. 1881, 



The most m teresting objects iu Natural Histoi-y are often found 

 amongst the most anomalous forms. This is peculiarly the case with 

 the particular group of Fungi which I have chosen for the subject of 

 the present paper, in which I do not profess to make any new observa- 

 tions, but I shall be quite content, should it prove to your members at 

 once interesting and instructive. I should be more able to make it so if I 

 could address you viva voce, with power of continual illustration by 

 means of figui-es drawn at once in your presence, but at my advanced 

 age, now verging on eigl ty. it would be impossible for me, and I must 

 not attempt that in wl.ich I might possibly break down ; and I now 

 comply with the request which has been made to me, as far as my 

 powers allow. 



The Fungi in question are those which are, as a rule, produced 

 beneath the surface of the earth, or which after a time become 

 superficial. They belong to several different types ; they abound in 

 calcareous districts, to which many species are restricted, and only a 

 few species can be expected to reward the researches of your local 

 Naturalists. In favourable localities, as the neighbourhood of Bath 

 and Eockingham Forest, many species are abundant. Wiltshire and 

 Kent, and other chalk counties, produce the greater part of what are 

 sold in Covent Garden, but, if properly hunted for, there are parts of 

 Northamptonshire which could yield, as I know by experience, an 



EEFERENCES TO PLATES I., II., AND III. 



Fig. 1. Tuber cEstivum, Vittadini, ascus with sporidia and single sporidium. 



2. T«6ec Bore?!!!, Vittadini, single sporidium. 



3. Tuber nitidum, Vittadini, single sporidium. 



4. Tuber rufum, Pico, single sporidium. 



5. Balsamia vulgaris. Vittadini, ascus with contained sporidia. 



6. Genea verrucosa, Vittadini, section of plant slightly enlarged, and section 



highly magnified, shewing the linear ascus with its contained sporidia. 



7. Genea Klotschii, Corda, section of plant natural size, and single sporidium. 



8. Elaphomyces Leveillei, Tulasne, ascus with the contained sporidia and 



single sporidium. 



9. Melanogaster ambiguus, Tulasne, sporophore with spores. 



10. Hysterangium nepiiriticurii, section shewing sporophores and spoi'es. 



11. Bhizopogon rubescens, Tulasne, section magnified. 



12. Hymenogaster citrinus, Vittadini. sporophores with spores. 



13. Do. do. surrounded by cyst. 



14. Hymenogaster Thiuaitesii, Berk, and Broome, spores with cyst. 



15. Endogone pisiformis, Lk., section of plant slightly magnified. 



16. Bo. do. Threads with cysts. 



All the figm-es are copied either from Corda or Tulasne, but the 

 correctness of all has been verified. They are all more or less highly 

 magnified, except where it is otherwise stated. 



