STRICKLAND: NOTES ON FUNGI. 1 87 



beech-tree host ? And if this be so, and we knew how to raise 

 fungi from their spores, could we evolve Agaricus (Armillaria) mucidus 

 or a similar form from Agaricus (Armillaria) melleus by sowing the 

 spores of the latter fungus on a suitable host, and selecting the 

 seedlings which deviated most from the parent plant in the direction 

 of the rarer form ? 



Now let us take the other example, the beautiful and highly 

 specialised Marasmius hudsoni, decidedly local in the east of 

 England and certainly one of the most beautiful of our British 

 species. There are various forms of minute Marasmii that grow 

 upon leaves, leaf-stalks, twigs or sticks — but this one, the most 

 specialised of all in form, is also the most specialised in its habitat. 

 The pileus and slender stem of this exquisite little fungus are light 

 ochre, whitey-brown-paper or tan-colour. It differs from all British 

 Marasmii, however, indeed, so far as I know, from all gilled fungi except 

 Agaricus (Mycena) epipterygius in certain states, by being covered with 

 long purple hairs, each hair being crowned with a small purple sphere 

 of crystal. This singular and beautiful little plant is always or 

 nearly always found growing upon dead holly-leaves. Here again, 

 remembering the viscid nature of the holly and the unique appen- 

 dages of this little fungus, one cannot help suspecting that there is 

 some connection between the nature of the host and the singularity 

 of form in the parasite growing upon it. And this suspicion may per- 

 haps gain confirmation if we reflect upon the fact that the Marasmii 

 are by nature dry leathery plants, while Agaricus (Mycena) epipterygius, 

 like several of the Mycenae, is clothed with a glutinous secretion, 

 and, as I have said above, is the only other fungus I know of which 

 in certain states produces similar hairs, each hair being crowned by 

 a tiny globule of colourless crystal. Before leaving the Marasmii I 

 may mention the curious variety of Marasmius peronatus I found 

 in an oak copse near Seamer Beacon, where the pilei of all the 

 plants found were spathulate and much resembled the fallen oak 

 leaves round about them ; the stem in this curiosity of natural 

 history being upright, but lateral as regards the aborted pileus. Let 

 us take another class of fungi, the Myxogastres. Observe the earlier 

 states, say, of a Stemonitis or a Trichia. Go out on a dewy morning 

 in autumn and pick up a rotten piece of wood in a damp dingle, and 

 you will probably find it pubescent from the stroma of some Sphaeria : 

 the fine hairs of the stroma will be crowned with globules of dew. 

 But look a little further. Here is also a pubescence of black awl- 

 like hairs, but the dewy globules are opaque white, like specks of 

 paste. They are, in fact, miniature specimens of Stemonitis or 

 Trichia and will develop in course of time into spherical peridia, 



June 1889. 



