294 Hybernation of Fungi. 



noicleum, sliould.be capable of cultivation. A quantity of these 

 Sclerotica on dry bark, were collected by himself, in conjunction 

 with his brother, in winter, and in the following April were 

 placed in sand. They remained dormant till the end of summer, 

 when the surface of the sand began to be covered with a very de- 

 licate web, which in the middle of September had spread in 

 every direction, and continued to do so for months, though indi- 

 vidual Sclerotia dug up in the month of October, seemed quite 

 unaltered in size, colour, or density. He remarks, moreover, 

 that the formation of a previous mycelium from the Sclerotium 

 is without example so far as his observations go, the fungus 

 arising in other cases immediately from the Sclerotium ; though 

 Leveille makes a different statement in his paper on Sclerotia in 

 the 20th volume of the second series of Annates cles Sciences 

 Naturelles, which will be found well worth attention. 



A taste for the cultivation of cryptogamic plants in general 

 is gaining ground in this country very fast. Not only are ferns 

 favourite objects of cultivation, but houses are now devoted to 

 mosses and liverworts, many of which grow admirably when 

 guarded against the attacks of the white mycelium of a little scar- 

 let Nectria, which if not constantly rubbed off, soon makes dread- 

 ful havoc amongst them. That fungi admit of extensive culti- 

 vation cannot be doubted, when the luxuriance of such agarics 

 as A. Oepcesti^>es, A. clyjpeolarius, and A.volvaceus, and, I may 

 add, their beauty in our stoves is taken into consideration. The 

 Australian Aseroe rubra, one o^the most interesting and beauti- 

 ful, though not the most sweet scented of fungi, once made its 

 appearance at Kew, as did the lovely Marasmius hcematocephalus 

 with its blood-red pileus, slender fawn coloured stem, and 

 cream coloured hymenium. Many species could undoubtedly 

 be imported, and especially those which in a dormant state 

 assume the condition of Sclerotia. Our native Sclerotia will 

 not indeed produce many species of brilliant colour, but their 

 progeny often exhibit an elegance of form and delicacy of tint 

 which command admiration from every lover of the intrinsically 

 beautiful. We trust, then, that the time may not be far distant, 

 when there may be, besides the ordinary mushroom bed, a fun- 

 gus-house as well as a fern and moss house in every first-rate 

 establishment. 



