224 Messrs. Hancock & Atthey on Fossil Fungi 



ways exhibit a peripheral bark or cuticle of considerable 

 thickness, though they vary in this respect, the cuticle being 

 sometimes comparatively thin. The colour, as before men- 

 tioned, varies from a pretty clear carmine to a warm yellow, 

 the intensity, of course, varying with the thickness of the 

 section, and also, to some extent, the tint. But the apparent 

 homogeneity is not by any means constant ; indeed by far the 

 greater number of specimens show the peculiar structure be- 

 fore mentioned, some to only a slight degree, others very ex- 

 tensively, the whole mass being filled with, nay, almost com- 

 posed of, ramifying tubes. The tubes vary considerably in 

 size in the different species (for there are many species of these 

 fungi), and, in fact, to some extent in the same species. In 

 some they measure -g-L- inch in diameter ; in others they are 

 quite minute, being only Ti-roo- inch in diameter; in some 

 they are plain ; in others, again, they terminate in large bulb- 

 like swellings, and have here and there similar but smaller 

 enlargements, two or three of such being occasionally placed 

 close together. The tubes always appear to originate in the 

 peripheral cuticle. 



The mode of ramification also varies : in some species the 

 tubes are long, and may be said to branch rather freely ; but 

 in others they are cramped and much contorted; they are 

 usually inextricably involved ; and in a few instances they 

 radiate from centres, and are short, sinuous, and stout. In all 

 cases they terminate in rounded extremities when not in 

 bulbs. 



The branches are very frequently sharply defined, and ex- 

 hibit a double marginal line, indicating that they have proper 

 walls. They are occasionally filled with the matrix ; and then 

 they are black and perfectly opaque, and have a very striking 

 appearance. The contained black matter is continuous with 

 the external matrix, and from this fact it may be inferred that 

 the tubes open externally ; indeed their arrangement seems 

 to indicate this ; however, they are usually transparent, and 

 reveal within their walls oval spore-like bodies, which pervade 

 both the branches and the bulbous enlargements. Similar 

 spore-like bodies are frequently scattered through the sub- 

 stance of the fungus amidst the ramifications ; and in a few 

 specimens in our possession these spore-like bodies are thickly 

 scattered throughout the entire substance, no tubes or any 

 other structure being perceptible. In others, again, nothing 

 is observed in the homogeneous matter except circular vesicles 

 resembling the bulbous enlargements of the tubes ; in some 

 instances such vesicles, large and small, are mingled together, 

 and have scattered amidst them the spore-like bodies. In one 



