110 THE VICTORIAN NATUEALIST. 



spread downwards to the base. This colouring became much 

 more pronounced in time, until the whole stem was of a light 

 orange colour. The hollow stem passed down through the volva, 

 suddenly contracting in diameter till it ended in a fine point, 

 which was fastened to the inside base of the volva. From this 

 point five ridges passed in a ray-like manner along the broad 

 base of the volva and up the sides. The volva was composed of 

 a thick skin, quite smooth and white inside ; the cutside was a 

 yellowish creamy white, in shape almost globular except where 

 the stem had burst through. With one plant of this fungus, I 

 found an unopened volva, which 1 took home and planted in the 

 garden, intending to watch its growth ; but 1 was doomed to 

 disappointment. The plant came forth in due time (three days), but 

 an unscrupulous magpie found it before me, and ate the greater 

 portion of the beautiful white stem. However, I had sufficient 

 material to work upon, and I have prepared several specimens, 

 with full notes, which Baron von Mueller, with his customary 

 courtesy, has promised to forward to an eminent botanist in 

 Switzerland, who has made the order, Phalloidei, his special 

 subject. In extra damp situations, sometimes on logs and some- 

 times on the ground, cup-shaped fungi were found, varying in size 

 trom two inches in diameter to less than the size of a pin's head, 

 and their colours are as varied as their size. Occasionally small 

 ones of a pure orange may be observed on manure — Peziza 

 stenorarla; large brown fleshy ones, as Peziza vesiculosa^ grow in 

 very wet soil, while occasionally tiny cream-coloured ones may be 

 seen twinkling on a moss-covered trunk. I remember, in 18S2, 

 I found some tiny green fungi on a green rotten log in one of 

 the fern gullies near Walhalla, I thought when 1 gathered 

 them that they were lichens, but after examination 1 went back 

 to get some more, for it is an understood dogma among 

 botanists that no chlorophyl or green colouring matter is ever 

 found on fungi. My long walk was thrown away, for Pro- 

 fessor Cook recognized these fungs at once as Chlorosplenmm 

 ceruginosuin. The great French botanist De Barry writes : — " One 

 thing remains to be noticed here which has never been explained 

 — the colouring oi Peziza ceruginosa." He goes on in a learned 

 disquisition to prove that although this fungus only grows on 

 wood covered with green rot it does not receive its colour from 

 the wood, and he ends in an undecided manner by saying — " It 

 ought not to be difficult to settle this question by artificial 

 cultivation. Here there is a scientific problem which some of 

 our members might attempt to elucidate, for the fungus, as I said 

 before, can be obtained in almost any very damp gully so screened 

 by trees that green-rotted wood may be easily found. 1 am 

 indebted to my friend Dr. A. Morrison for some beautiful 

 specimens of a kind of Diachoea which belong to the order 



