324 MESSRS. HANCOCK AND ATTHEY 



irregular character of the tubes, their nodular enlargements, and 

 the large terminal vesicles, are all features that are found in both 

 the recent and fossil species. And, moreover, many of the larger 

 "threads" or tubes in Sclerotium stipitatum can be seen abutt- 

 ing with their ends against the dark peripheral cuticle, just as 

 the tubes do in the fossil species, the bark or cuticle of which 

 is similar in definition and thickness, and is also dark and 

 opaque.* 



On examining sections of these lenticular fungi from the coal- 

 shale, we find that they occasionally appear to be almost, if not 

 entirely, homogeneous, and that, when perfect, they always 

 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 mentioned, 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 speci- 

 mens show the peculiar structure before mentioned, some to only 

 a slight degree, others very extensively, the whole mass being 

 filled with, nay, almost composed 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-o-crth of an inch in 

 diameter ; in others they are quite minute, being only o-oD^th 

 of an 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 



* Since the above was written we have obtained from Newsham a very interesting specimen 

 of our new fungus, with the surface in excellent preservation. We have stated in the text 

 that traces of surface-reticulation had been observed: in this new specimen the whole sur- 

 face is covered with a minute angular reticulation, sharply defined by grooves, and resem- 

 bling most closely the cuticular reticulation represented in the figures of Sclerotium stipitatum 

 illustrating the paper of Messrs. Berkeley and Currey already referred to ; so that in general 

 form, in this peculiar surface-reticulation, in the thickness and character of the cuticle, and 

 in internal structure our fossil fungi agree with this peculiar species from India. 



