30 
POPULAR SCIENCE EE VIEW. 
or fringed vessels, with no compensating feature to recommend 
it to the microscopist. 
In the genus Endophyllum, as its name implies, the peridium 
is imbedded within the substance of the succulent leaves. 
The only species we possess is found rarely upon the common 
houseleek. 
We have derived much pleasure in viewing the astonish- 
ment and delight exhibited by friends to whom we have 
personally communicated specimens of the little fungi we 
have enumerated for examination under the microscope ; and 
we recommend with confidence this group of parasitic plants, 
unfortunately so little known, as well worthy of the attention 
of all who are interested in the minute aspects of nature, and 
who can recognize the hand — 
“ That sets a sun amidst the firmament, 
Or moulds a dew-drop, and lights up its gem.” 
CHAPTEK II. 
SPEEMOGONES. 
I N addition to their spore-bearing spots, lichens have for 
some time been known to possess other organs, termed 
sperm og ones, which are probably concerned more or less in 
the reproductive process. The first intimation of the existence 
of similar bodies in the entophytal fungi originated with M. 
Unger in 1833, but it was left to M. de Bary and the Messrs. 
Tulasne, twenty years later, to examine and determine satis- 
factorily the nature and value of the spermogones of the 
Uredines. It was at first believed that the smaller pustules — 
which sometimes precede, and sometimes accompany, the 
cluster- cups and some other allied fungi — were distinct species 
developed simultaneously therewith, or members of a. new 
genus, which, under the name of JEddiolum exanthematum , 
found a place in the mycologic system. 
Without staying to trace the stages through which the 
elucidation of their true nature proceeded, it will suffice for 
our purpose to tell what is now known of these secondary 
organs ; to accomplish which we must stand greatly indebted 
to the independent researches of Messrs. De Bary and 
Tulasne. It has been demonstrated that both these bodies, 
namely, the primary organs or cluster-cups, and the secondary 
