19-t 



inch in size, will be found Avitli critical inspection -with a pocket 

 lens, to be made up of numerous slender, black fibres radiating 

 from a common centre and upon Aybicli the perithecia are scat- 

 tered in the shape of small, rounded grains. The whole plant, 

 though small and considered indicative of disease, yet is by no 

 means an inelegant production, Avhether externally or internal- 

 ly considered. 



Two rare species, from other localities, are here appended, 



YJZ 



1. Phragmotrichum Chaillctii {Kwizc:) Fries' S'ijst. Orb. 

 Veg, 191. Myc: Syst. Yol. III. p. 492. Figured iti Payer 

 Bot Crypt. (Paris 1855) p. 70. 



This is a small fungus, which scarcely would seem worthy of 

 heed, but whose internal structure is of exceeding beauty. A 

 cluster of cracked spots upon the scales of spruce cones ; which 

 as they decay on the ground seem only like the hastening of 

 their dissolution. The interior of these little chinks is filled 

 with chains of interrupted, barred, lozenge-shaped spores, af- 

 fording a most beautiful microscopical object. 



This fungus has never before been detected in this country, 

 and was found by me on the 4th of March, 1850, in Hingham, 

 Plymouth County, Mass.; parasitical on the decaying scales of 

 the white spruce, {Abies Alba), which is under cultivation 

 there, as an ornamental tree. 



2. Sphaeronema Subtile. Fries' Myc. Sysi. Vol. II. p. 

 539. 



A very minute fungus vegetating on dead pine branches 

 {Pimis Strobus) denuded of bark and upon cedar rails used 

 for fencing purposes. I found it at Hingham, December 31st, 

 1847, and I am assured by the Rev. Dr. M. A. Curtis, our dis- 

 tinguished mycologist, that it is an acquisition to our mycology. 



