156 MR. F. CURREY ON BRITISH FUNGI. 
At the same place I have found a single specimen of a plant strongly resembling in the 
shape of its perithecium Ostreichnion Americanum, Duby. The sporidia are represented 
in Plate XXV. fig. 20, x 430 diameters. The latter were in asci, eight in number, pale 
yellowish brown, 7-10-septate, 0:0016 to 0:0020 inch long. The fruit hardly accords with 
that of Duby's plant. 
CRIBRARIA INTRICATA, Schrad. 
This plant was first published as a British species in the Addenda to Mr. Berkeley's 
‘Outlines of British Fungology.’ I refer to it here for the purpose of noticing the mode 
of germination of its spores. It is well known to mycologists that Dr. de Bary has 
attempted to prove that the Myxogastrie Fungi ought to be transferred from the vege- 
table to the animal kingdom, and his views are partly founded upon the fact that the 
spores of the Myxogasteres do not germinate like those of other fungi. The production 
of zoospores instead of the emission of germ-filaments is no doubt a remarkable faet ; but 
the former have been observed by De Bary himself in Peronospora, and, if I understand 
rightly, it is the absence of the latter which he considers to be of service to his argument. 
In his recent paper in the ‘ Regensburg Flora'* (No. 17, May 22, 1862), he seems to 
admit that the production of germ-filaments, if proved, would, to some extent at least, 
invalidate his theory. In Pringsheim’s * Jahrbücher für wiss. Bot.’ vol. ii. pl. 31. fig. 32, 
Hoffmann figures the sporidia of Stemonitis typhoides germinating in the usual manner; 
but as he adds the remark, “ihre Keimung mit Fäden ist zweifelhaft,” it would seem 
that he had some doubt about his facts. In Cribraria intricata I have seen the spores 
germinate by filaments in the manner represented in Plate XXV. figs. 27, 28, & 29, and 
I have no reason to suspect any error of observation. The amalgamation of the filaments 
proceeding from one spore with those from two others may be seen in fig. 29. I have 
observed a similar amalgamation in the germ-filaments of Spheria herbarum, and it is, 
1 believe, of common occurrence. In opposition to De Bary’s views, there is also the fact 
that in Badhamia the spores are produced in sacs similar to the asci of the ascigerous 
fungi. In his original paper in Siebold and Kdlliker’s * Zeitschrift’ (vol. x.), De Bary 
questions the existence of these sacs; but they have been noticed by the late Dr. Badham, 
by Mr. Berkeley, and by myself, so that there is really no reasonable ground for De Bary’s 
doubts. 
BADHAMIA INAURATA, n. S. 
Gregarious ; peridia sessile, globose or nearly so, bright yellow, barely j;th of an inch 
across, covered with floccose yellow scales, and opening by irregular fissures; sporidia 
subglobose, very minutely punctate, 0-0004 to 0:0006 inch across, enclosed at first (as in 
other Badhamie) in hyaline sacs. On Jungermannia, Petts Wood, Paul’s Cray Common, 
October 1859. 
Plate XXV. fig. 8 represents the fungus magnified. 
* Die neuesten Arbeiten über die Schleimpilze und ihre Stellung im System besprochen von A. de Bary. 
. + Tulasne, in the ‘Selecta Fungorum Carpologia (p. 5, note 2), speaks of De Bary's theory as follows :—“ Ex- 
perimentis observationibusque novis gravissimi momenti nititur clar. Antonius a Bary, francofurtanus, qui, preeter 
omnem ferme verisimilitudinem, Myxomycetes inter animalia deinceps recensendos fore contendit." 
