14 OUTLINES OF BRITISH FUNGOLOGY. 



of colouring they occasionally command attention, notwith- 

 standing their diminutive size. The species are called Myxo- 

 gastres, from their early mucilaginous condition. 



There yet remains another very singular and distinct group 

 of closely allied Fungi, which contains but a few British 

 species. These however are so curious or beautiful, that they 

 never fail to command admiration. One of them, Cyathus 

 vei-nicosus, is common in turnip-fields or amongst stubble, re- 

 sembling little cup-shaped sacs, full of eggs ; and two others 

 are by no means rare, on dead fern-stems, sticks, etc. A 

 smaller Fungus, Sphcerobolus stellatus (Plate 21, fig. 2), is 

 remarkable for its expanding like a little star, and shooting 

 out with prodigious foi'ce by the inversion of its inner mem- 

 brane, a globose mass, which contains the fruit, just like a 

 shell from a mortar. These Fungi are known under the com- 

 mon name of Nidulariei, from the nest-like appearance of the 

 more typical species. (See Plate 21, fig. 1, and Plate 2, fig. 2, 3.) 



We now come to a large division of Fungi, of which little 

 is known to the general observer, because almost all its species 

 are so small, and in general so devoid of external beauty, that 

 it is only the lover of the microscope who is at pains to study 

 them. A large portion of them are to the naked eye mere 

 black specks upon leaves, twigs, etc., though the structure of 

 their spores is often very curious. Many, it is believed, are 

 nothing more than conditions of some of the Fungi which are 

 comprised in the fifth great division of these plants. Some of 

 them have their spores contained in a distinctly organized cyst 

 (perithecium) ;* others arc merely concealed under the bark 

 or cuticle, while others are completely exposed. In the former 



* The word perithecium more properly applies, according to its etymology, 

 to the Sphceriacei and their close allies, but it would be refining needlessly to 

 give the organ a distinct name here. 



