264 INTRODUCTION TO CEYPTOGAMIC BOTAJJY. 



food, and there is some reason to believe that they were the 

 pollen grains of some common Cichoraceous plant.* Nothing, 

 however, was ever proved beyond their existence, which, per- 

 haps, did not receive all the attention it deserved, partly ui 

 consequence of their being erroneously supposed to be the 

 spores of bunt, and partly because fragments of spiral vessels, 

 and other matters from the common aromatic confection, had 

 been mistaken for Fungi. 



262. In connection with this subject it may not be out of place 

 to call attention to the rains of blood, or ink, or sulphur, as they 

 are called, which at various times have alarmed the sensibilities 

 of ignorant or superstitious people. Ehrenberg has with great 

 patience collected, in his treatise on the dust of the trade- 

 winds, records of the most prominent instances. Some, 

 it is known, are due to soot; others, to poUen of conifers 

 or willows; others, to the production of Fungi. Bloodspots 

 are sometimes produced by a species of Epicoccum ; but the 

 most extraordinary instances are those presented by a produc- 

 tion which has been referred to Algse, and the animal kingdom 

 under the respective names of Palmella prodigiosa and 

 Monas prodigiosa. My own opinion is that it is a state of 

 some mould, analogous to the gelatinous spots of various 

 colours which appear on meat or paste when in a state of 

 incipient decomposition. It increases with immense rapi- 

 dity, and is easily propagated ; a very singular circumstance 

 being, that from particular spots multitudes of lesser spots 

 extend in a straight line, as if blood had been spirted out 

 from a wounded artery. Mr. Stephens, in an article in the 

 Annals of Natural History, N. S., vol. 12, p. 409, has appa- 

 rently described some second form of this species, and it is 

 either capable of great change of colour, as specks of yellow, 

 pink, white, and even blue accompany it, or other analogous 

 forms of moulds or allied species occur on the same matrix. 

 The colour is peculiarly vivid, and is capable of commu- 

 nicating a brilliant and permanent dye to many manufac- 

 tured articles. In the hot days of July, 1853, provisions 



* Dr. Ransom thinks they may be the ova of Ascaris Inmhricoides . 

 See Med. Times, June 14, 1856. 



