20 
MICROSCOPIC FUNGI.— PARASITIC ON LIVING 
PLANTS. 
BY M. C. COOKE. 
CHAPTER I. 
CLUSTER-CUPS. 
I N these latter days, when every one who possesses a love 
for the marvellous, or desires a knowledge of some of the 
minute mysteries of nature, has, or ought to have, a micro- 
scope, a want is occasionally felt which we have essayed to 
supply. This want consists in a guide to some systematic 
botanical study in which the microscope can be rendered 
available, and in which there is ample field for discovery, and 
ample opportunity for the elucidation of facts only partly 
revealed. Fungi, especially the more minute epiphyllous 
species, present just such an opportunity as many an ardent 
student would gladly take advantage of ; one great obstacle 
to the pursuit being hitherto found in the absence of any 
hand-book to this section of the British flora, embracing the 
emendations, improvements, and additions of the past twenty- 
seven years, the period at which the fifth volume of the 
“ English Flora ” made its appearance. It would be incom- 
patible with the aim and objects of a quarterly journal of 
popular science to introduce an entire mycological flora to its 
readers in its consecutive numbers ; but we hope, in the 
course of this and one or two succeeding papers, to communi- 
cate such information as will serve to prepare the way still 
more for such an addition to our Flora, should it ever be 
produced, and render the demand still wider and more general 
for such an extension of our botanical literature. It is true 
that one work has of late years issued from the press on this 
subject, but notwithstanding its utility to scientific men as a 
record of species, it is practically useless to those we address, 
from the absence of all specific descriptions of microscopic 
fungi. 
Let not the reader imagine, from what we have just stated, 
that it is our intention to burden him with a dry series of 
