178 



The Fungi of Wiltshire. 



producing asci with the usual kind of sporidia ; conidia, which 

 resemble the genus Oidium, if they do not constitute it; and 

 bodies termed by M. Tulasne, pycnidia, which are perithecia con- 

 taining a multitude of threads, producing at their tips minute 

 bodies endowed with molecular motion, and which he denominates 

 stylospores. M. Tulasne indeed considers numerous Fungi, hitherto 

 looked on as autonomous plants, to be merely the third forms, or 

 pycnidia of other known species, such are for instance the Genera 

 Sphseropsis, Phoma, Sphseronema, Diplodia, Hendersonia, Cytispora 

 and many others. Among the Moulds too, an attempt has been 

 made to show Aspergillus glaucus to be the state of another Fun- 

 gus, which is a well-known pest in damp herbaria, viz., Eurotium 

 herbariorum. Pycnidia are easily to be seen on the leaves of the 

 garden anemone, which are infested by CEcidium, they may be 

 found on the back of the leaves, exactly opposite the CEcidium. 



The cellular tissue of Fungi assumes very varied forms. In the 

 genus Trichia we find spiral tissue resembling that of Alga?, but 

 as the Myxogasters, to which Trichia belongs, have lately been 

 asserted, by De Bary, to belong to the animal kingdom, and as 

 their early state is very obscure, we may refer to Batarrea, for an 

 example of spiral cells in an undoubted Fungus. It does not 

 appear that these spiral cells can be unrolled as in the spiral vessels 

 of flowering plants, the appearance is probably therefore due to a 

 mere thickening of the cell-walls, in a spiral direction. In some 

 species globose cells are met w T ith, in others club-shaped , others 

 exhibit very long tubular cells, which are well seen in the slime that 

 clothes certain Agarics. Corda distinguishes vessels, which convey 

 the milk-like fluid in some Agarics. The cells of Fungi are often very 

 minute, the spores of some species being not unfrequently less than 

 ipoo of an inch in length. They are consequently carried through 

 the air by the slightest breath of wind. The sporidia of Pezizse exhi- 

 bit the truth of this, for though comparatively large, they are ejected 

 and carried to considerable distances, on the plants being touched. 



Fungi attain their maximum, in point of numbers, in temperate 

 regions, the great heat of the tropics, as well as the northern cold, 

 being prejudicial to their rate of increase. No locality is free from 



