292 TRUFFLE. PARTII. 



plentiful in some parts of England, that it is used for 

 making katsup ; while the Cyttaria, which is indigenous 

 in the southern hemisphere, is the staple food of the 

 Fuegians during many months of the year ; its subgela- 

 tinous consistence indicates a nutritious principle. This 

 species has the peculiarity of growing upon living 

 branches, after the manner of the jelly-like fungus of 

 the juniper. 



M. Tulasne has discovered in Peziza, and in the 

 genus Bulgaria and others, certain minute bodies, 

 which he considered to be of the nature of the eel- 

 shaped particles or antherozoids in the Algae. Besides, 

 he has shown that several species of Peziza have a 

 second form of fruit. Fries had long before pointed 

 out the identity of Fusarium tremelloides and the orange 

 coloured Peziza common on nettle stems. Many of 

 the larger Pezizee andHelvellse eject their sporidia with 

 great elastic force. This is particularly remarkable in 

 the Peziza vesiculosa, common in hot-beds, when the 

 sun is shining ; the least agitation raises a visible cloud 

 of sporidia like vapour. The motions of the sporidia 

 in the genus Yibrissea, which grows on twigs partly im- 

 mersed in water, is very peculiar. They are exceedingly 

 long and slender, and, when partly ejected, they wave 

 about in the sunshine till they are expelled. 



The fungi of the order Tuberacei are nearly all sub- 

 terranean, and their fruit-bearing surface, as in the 

 truffle, is internal. The asci are either irregularly de- 

 posited in cavities, or in the denser tubers they are 

 sprinkled through a dark substance which is mottled 

 with a paler tissue. The truffle, which is the most 

 important and best known of the order, has a dark cor- 

 rugated exterior, and the asci are represented by large 

 pyriform sacs containing sporidia covered with a re- 

 ticulated or spinose coat ; but these spines are only the 

 angles of continuous cells, and are beautiful micro- 



