VIl] PATHOLOGY OF FOSSIL TISSUES. 213 



bladders as starch grains, and this may be their true nature ; 

 their appearance and abundant occurrence in the parenchyma 

 certainly suggest vesicular cell-contents rather than fungal 

 cells. I could detect no proof of any connection between the 

 hyphae and bladders, and the absence of the latter in the 

 cavities of the tracheids, fig. 41, C, favoured the view of their 

 being either starch-grains or other vacuolated contents similar 

 to that in the cells of the Portland Cycad (fig. 41, A) referred 

 to on p. 88. 



The vacuolated cell-contents partially filling the cells in 

 fig. 41, D, present a striking resemblance to the contents of the 

 cells 2-5 in fig. 41, A. In fig. D the frothy and contracted 

 substance might be easily mistaken for a parasitic or sapro- 

 phytic fungus, but this resemblance is entirely misleading. It 

 is by no means uncommon to find the cells of recent plants 

 occupied by such vacuolated contents,, especially in diseased 

 tissues in which a pathological effect produces an appearance 

 which has more than once misled the most practised observers. 



In the important work recently published by Renault on 

 the Permo-Carboniferous flora of Autun, there is a small spore- 

 like body described as a teleutospore, and classed with the 

 Puccineae\ We have as yet no satisfactory evidence of the 

 existence of this section of Fungi in Palaeozoic times, and 

 Renault's description of Teleutospora Milloti trom Autun might 

 be seriously misleading if accepted without reference to his 

 figure. The fragment he describes cannot be accepted as 

 sufiScient evidence for the existence of a Palaeozoic Puccinia. 



The same author refers another Palaeozoic fungus to the 

 Mucorineae under the name of Mucor Gomhrensis"^; this iden- 

 tification is based on a mycelium having a resemblance to 

 the branched thallus of Mucor, but in the absence of repro- 

 ductive organs such resemblance is hardly adequate as a means 

 of recognition. 



The occurrence of hyphal cells in calcareous shells and 

 corals has already been alluded to.' In addition to the 

 examples referred to above, there is one which has been 



1 Renault (96) p. 427, fig. 80, d. 



2 itid. p. 427, fig. 80, a^-c. ^ p. 127. 



