1 Moss Parasites. 



partially tinted with salmon colour, and then studded with 

 little pale scarlet specks, which are the cysts or perithecia of a 

 Nectria, which from its peculiar habit has been called Nectria 

 muscivora. This species is found on the Continent as well as 

 in this country, and appears in M. Desmazieres Crypto games 

 du Nord de la France as Sphceria hryophila, having been found by 

 him about the old fortifications of his neighbouring city, Lille. 



This little enemy is of 

 the greater importance, 

 and more worthy of be- 

 ing mentioned (here, be- 

 cause it is no less active 

 in destroying j mosses 

 under cultivation than 



, T , . . t> i 3 -o in the open air. I have 



-Nectria muscivora, .Berk, and iJroome. . r , 



seen it at work m a 

 a. Perithecia, magnified. _ . little conservatory de- 



ft. Asci with, sporidia, magnified. , n . ,-i -i , • 



c. Sporidia, highly magnified, natural size VOtea 10 tnese Deautl- 



__i__ inch long. ful and interesting ve- 



getables ; and it very 

 soon proves fatal if the gardener is not careful to remove it 

 with a feather or cam el' s-hair pencil, as fast as it appears. 



I observed a few days since another moss parasite in a very 

 peculiar position, which deserves record, as much on account of 

 its curious habit, as because it forms an addition to our list of 

 fungi which prey upon mosses. 



The oolitic stepping stones which run along the ancient 

 causeway leading from the site of Fotheringay Castle across 

 the valley of Nene, produce, where they are not worn by the 

 feet, a large quantity of that variety of Orthotrichum cwpulatum 

 which has a smooth veil, mixed with Schistidium apocarpum, 

 and one or two other mosses. The capsules of the different 

 species of Orthotrichum, as is well known, are just a year from their 

 first growth in coming to perfection, and perhaps partly on 

 account of their comparatively short fruit-stalk, and partly from 

 the tenacity of the fruit-stalk itself, are more persistent than in 

 most mosses, so that the plant at the present moment presents 

 the capsules which were ripened last year, those that have just 

 come to perfection and the rudiments of the crop which is to be 

 matured early next summer. The teeth which surround the 

 mouth of the capsule are sixteen in number, and when dry 

 spread out more or less, but are not recurved as in several 

 other species. I was surprised, however, to find in many of the 

 old capsules, that the teeth were horizontal and applied by 

 their edges to each other, exactly as when they were still within 

 their lid, and just after the fashion of that arrangement of the 

 unopened petals or sepals of phcenogams which is known by 



