FLORA. 171 
fibres of the fragment of elm were filled up with slender 
fungoid forms, mycelia; while on its different surfaces 
appeared several dark-coloured specks, belonging to the 
genus Phoma. As it was not probable that plants so 
minute could have retained, through the terrible severity 
of an Arctic winter, their delicate naked spores in the 
perfect condition in which they were found, Mr Berkeley 
concluded that they must have been developed through 
that same summer; while from three to four years, in 
those high latitudes, and amid the rigour of stormy ice- 
covered seas, would suffice to produce the bleached appear- 
ance of the wood. Hence he inferred that the plank had 
not been long exposed. 
‘On the other fragment of drift-wood he discovered . 
some deeply-embedded minute black fungoid forms, called 
Sporidesmium lepraria, Unlike the phomas, which are 
very ephemeral, these plants possess the longevity of the 
lichens, and the same patches last for years unchanged on 
the same pieces of wood, while their traces are discernible 
for a still longer period. From their condition Mr Berke- 
ley concluded that the fungi on the drifted wood had not 
been recently developed, but that, on the contrary, they 
were the remains of the species which existed on the 
drift-wood when used for fuel by the unfortunate crews of 
Franklin’s ships, the Erebus and the Terror. 
‘There can be no doubt whatever, as Dr Macmillan 
remarks, considering the circumstances in which they were 
discovered, and the remarkable appearances they presented 
—there can be no reasonable doubt that both fragments 
of drift-wood belonged to, or were connected with, the lost 
ships; and the curious information regarding the course 
they pursued at a certain time, furnished by witnesses so 
extraordinary and unlikely as a few tiny dark specks of 
cryptogamic vegetation on floating drift-wood, was con- 
firmed, in a wonderful manner by the after-discovery of 
the first authentic account ever obtained of the sad and 
pathetic history of Franklin’s expedition.* 
* In Siberia grows the fly-agaric (Agaricus muscarius), from which the inhabitants 
obtain an intoxicating liquor of peculiarly dangerous character. It has a tall white 
