290 



Hybernation of Fungi. 



superficial cells in S. co'twplanatum, so like those of the cuticle of 

 many leaves, convinced me that there was much to make out 

 about these plants, and soon after Dr. Greville's attention was 

 called by me to the subject. A few years afterwards, on com- 

 mencing an active correspondence with Fries, I pointed out to 

 him the origin of Sclerotium pyrinum from the common Peni- 

 cillium, and the necessity of modifying his notions as to their 

 affinities. This Sclerotium, moreover, though evidently derived 

 from the Penicillium, consisted, like other legitimate forms of 

 the spurious genus, of a compact mass of cells, and not merely 

 of close packed threads capable of being resolved by careful 

 manipulation into the original fiocci, which appears to have 

 been the case with some supposed Sclerotica of similar origin, 

 which were, in fact, nothing more than unusually compact 

 examples of that state of Penicillium which has received the 



ElQ-. 8.— Mitcor Siibtilissimus springing FiG- 9.—Mucor Siibtilissimus spring- 



from the tip of an Onion whose bulb ing from a thin slice of Sclerotium 



was covered with Sclerotium, Cepce, Cepce placed in a drop of fluid in a 



highly magnified. closed cell, highly magnified. 



name of Goremium. In 1848, in conjunction with Mr. Hoff- 

 mann of Margate, I succeeded in making a thin slice of the 

 minute Sclerotium (S. C&pcB, Libert), which occurs sometimes in 

 myriads, like the grains of coarse gunpowder, on onions, vege- 

 tate in a closed cell; and the result was the production of a^ 

 i uiimto species of mould which is figured in the JowmaH of 

 the Horticultural Society of London for that year, under the 

 name of Much,- subtilisswvus. This was, of course, a step in 

 ill" aame direction as the tracing the origin of Sderoivum pyri- 



