B52, FUNGI. 
obscure that we doubt its existence, and hence the closer affinity 
of the plant to the Perisporiacei than to the Spheriacei. The 
interior of the perithecium is occupied by a gelatinous nucleus, 
consisting of elongated cylindrical asci, each enclosing eight 
globose hyaline sporidia, with slender branched paraphyses. A 
new genus has been proposed for this and another similar form, 
and the present species bears the name of Orbicula cyclospora.* 
The most singular circumstance connected with this narrative 
is the presence together of four distinctly different species of 
fungi, all of them previously unknown and undescribed, and no 
trace amongst them of the presence of any one of the very common 
species, which would be supposed to develop themselves under 
such circumstances. It is not at all unusual for Sporocybe 
alternata, B., to appear in broad black patches on damp papered 
walls, but in this instance not a trace was to be found. What 
were the peculiar conditions present in this instance which led 
to the manifestation of four new forms, and none of the old 
ones? We confess that we are unable to account satisfactorily 
for the mystery, but, at the same time, feel equally unwilling to 
invent bypothescs in order to conceal our own ignorance. 
® ¢TIandbook of British Fungi,” vol. ii. p. 926, No. 2,788. 
