Seasonal Notes 



505 



light ; the latter is dispersed by animals, and must be large to 

 attract attention. 



March is another poor month for the mycologist, but few 

 species are to be found additional to those we noted in the 

 past two months. On some old birch trunks may be seen old 

 sporophores of the birch polypore [Poly poms betulinus). If 

 the season is mild and damp, late in the month or early in 

 April, the very curious fungus, Sclerotinia tnberosa, may be 

 found in chestnut and other woods. It is an ascomycete. 



In the young state it resembles a small brown cup about 

 half an inch high, and a quarter of an inch in diameter. As it 

 approaches maturity it expands, and ultimately becomes quite 

 flat. It appears closely seated upon the ground, and devoid 

 of stem. If the earth is carefully removed, it will be seen 

 that the little brown cup is seated on the extremity of a 

 flexuous brown stem, about two and a half inches in length, 

 which terminates in an irregularly elliptical, hard, black body, 

 which is white inside. This body is known as a sclerotium. 

 It is a peculiar condition assumed by the mycelium of the 

 fungus whilst in what may be termed a resting stage. The 

 duration of the quiescence is unknown to us. In former days, 

 when the black bodies were improperly understood, they were 

 classed under a genus Sclerotium. The sclerotium of Sclero- 

 tinia tubevosa is always attached to the rhizome of the wood 

 anemone {Anemone nemorosa), upon which plant it is therefore a 

 parasite. 



By the time these notes appear in print frog and toad 

 spawn will be abundant in many ponds and ditches. These 

 amphibians show a marked partiality for certain places for 

 spawning. Frog's spawn may commonly be found in the 

 first week of the month ; toad's spawn is not often seen till a 

 fortnight later. These spawns may be easily distinguished. 

 That of the frog consists of a glairy mass containing many 

 round black spots ; toad's spawn is never in a mass, but is 

 arranged in long double chains. 



