POLYMORPHIC FUNGI. 
31 
For the benefit of the mycologist, we may observe that, although 
at first reminded of the Penicillium olivaceum of Corda by 
the colour of this species, it differs in the spores being oblong 
(PL LXVIII. fig. 4 b), instead of globose, and the ramifications 
of the flocci are different. Unable again to find a described 
species of Penicillium with which this new mould would agree, 
it was named Penicillium chartarum. 
Almost simultaneously, or but shortly after the perfection of 
the spores of the Penicillium , other and very similar patches 
appeared, distinguished by the naked eye more particularly by 
their dendritic form (PI. LXVIII. fig. 6). This peculiarity seemed 
to result from the dwarfed habit of the third fungus, since the 
varnish, though cracked and raised, was not cast off, but re- 
mained in small angular fragments, giving to the spots their 
dendritic appearance, the dark spores of the fungus protruding 
through the fissures. This same mould was also found in many 
cases growing in the same spots amongst Penicillium charta- 
rum, but whether from the same mycelium could not be deter- 
mined. 
The distinguishing features of this fungus consist in an 
extensive mycelium of delicate threads, from which arise 
numerous erect branches, bearing at the apex dark brown 
opaque spores. Sometimes the branches are again shortly 
branched, but in the majority of instances are single. The 
spores are septate, sometimes with two, three, or four divisions, 
many of them again divided by cross septa in the longitudinal 
direction of the spore, so as to give a muriform appearance. 
As far as the structure and appearance of the spores are con- 
cerned, they are very similar to those of Sporidesmium poly- 
morphum ; consequently specimens were published as a variety 
of that species, but the accuracy of this determination is open 
to very grave doubts. The mycelium and erect threads are 
much too highly developed for a good species of Sporidesmium , 
and certainly so for the species to which they were referred, so 
that in the “Handbook of British Fungi ” it is named Spori- 
desmium alternaria , for reasons hereafter detailed (Pl. LXVIII. 
fig. 7). 
Preuss has described, in “ Sturm’s Flora,” a species of Alter- 
naria in which the spores are attached end to end in a beaded 
manner, as in other species of that genus, and the spores them- 
selves are just of the character of the spores of our Sporides- 
mium , as will be seen by reference to the plate and comparison 
of figures 8 and 9. Preuss’s Alternaria , which he calls char- 
tarum, was also developed on paper, and it is not improbable 
that it is a more highly perfected form of the Sporidesmium 
in question. This view is strengthened by the appearance of 
freshly collected specimens of the Sporidesmium, in which, as 
