ON FOSSIL FUNGI. 327 



and attenuated are they, that their margins only can be per- 

 ceived, dying out until the faintest traces of them subside into 

 the surrounding homogeneous substance. 



Those specimens that exhibit only cell-like bodies, large and 

 small, may have had likewise ramifying tubes, and pressure may 

 have obliterated them ; or they may have had a continuous con- 

 nected congeries of cells opening at the surface, as the tubes 

 MTOuld seem to do ; and in one instance, at least, extensive 

 traces of such a structure exist. In this case the spores will 

 have been developed in the cells ; and, in fact, spore-like bodies 

 have been observed in connexion with these cells. 



We have already stated that the tubes originate in, and appar- 

 ently open at, the periphery of the fungus, and that spore-like 

 bodies are occasionally found within the tubes and the bulbous 

 enlargements in connexion with them. Such being the case, it 

 is only necessary to suppose (and indeed from what we have 

 seen apparently the fact is such) that the tubes are invaginated 

 prolongations of the outer envelope or cuticle, in order to bring 

 the organization of these coal species into some accordance with 

 the structure of the higher fungi, in which the spores seem to 

 be always developed in connexion with folds, tubes, or processes 

 of one kind or other of the enveloping membrane or cuticle, or, 

 more correctly speaking, of the hymenium, which is itself appar- 

 ently a continuation of the peripheral investment. 



We shall now conclude this very imperfect account of these 

 interesting Coal-Measure fungi with concise descriptions of a 

 few of the more characteristic species, leaving the rest (probably 

 as many more) for further investigation, which we hope will 

 throw additional light on this intricate subject. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES. 



1. Abchagaricon bulbosum. 



Tubes of equal size, about — oVcth of an inch in diameter ; the 

 main branches pretty straight, long, somewhat sinuous, with the 

 secondary branches much contorted, involved, and crowded ; 



