DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 



EUMYCETES. 



Fig. 2. 



Mycelium cf 



fungus, in seed 



of Meliosma. 



The only fungi yet examined are some affecting the fruits of Meliosma europaea, 

 and mentioned under that species (p. 113). This fungus may partly be accountable for 

 the extermination of the Meliosma. Specimens of the diseased fruits 

 (Plate XI, figs. 24, 25) were sent to Mr. G. Massee, of Kew, who reports 

 as follows: — 



"In the diseased patches on the Meliosma seeds the tissue is 

 disintegrated, and the mycelium of some fungus is present in quantity 

 (Text*fig. 2). At the periphery of these patches the mycelium can be 

 seen encroaching on the healthy tissue. From analogy the mycelium is 

 that of a true parasite, but in the absence of fruit its relationship cannot 

 be determined." 



MUSCI. 



Amongst the seeds washed out of the clays at Tegelen, Swalmen, 

 and Reuver were a few small fragments of moss, and it is not clear why 

 mosses should be so extremely rare in these Pliocene deposits. The 

 specimens were sent to Mr. H. N. Dixon for determination, and his 

 notes on them are as follows: — 



"The Reuverian collection consists of but half a dozen exceedingly 

 small and fragmentary remains. Of these however, two were of distinct 

 interest. One, a mere fragment from Swalmen with but little left of any of the leaves 

 but the nerve and parts of the basal areolation, retained however sufficient of the latter 

 to show that it belonged to a small group of mosses, § Urocladium of the genus Pinna* 

 tella Fleisch. (Povotvichum spp. auctorum), consisting of some half dozen species confined 

 to the south-eastern region of Asia (India, Malay Archipelago, Tonkin, Formosa, Japan), 

 and especially characterized by an intra=mavginal border or band of elongate cells, such 

 as is found in a very few groups of mosses only (Calymperes, Fissidens, particularly). The 

 Reuverian moss is scarcely distinguishable from P. alopecuroides (Hook.) Fleisch. except 

 in the stouter nerve (35; — 4(V wide)and the leakcells slightly larger and with a pronounced 



51 



