122 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
A Fungus from the Secondary Rocks in the Island of Raasay 
(N.W. Scotland): Pal^omyces a. 
The rock containing this fungus was one gathered in connection with 
the now well-known successful borings for ironstone in the island of 
Raasay. The rock was a part of a hard calcareous marl which lay under- 
neath about forty feet of limestone. The stone in section showed an irregular 
network, and here and there in the meshes of this network fragments of 
animal organisms. Although the walls of the mesh were highly charged 
with iron, the animal fragments in the meshes Avere quite free from it, at 
anyrate from sufficient quantity to impart to them any appreciable red- 
Figs. 14-16 . — Palceomyces a. 
Figs. 14 and 15.— Hyphse from a calcareous oolitic stone from Raasay. 
Hyphso are coal-black in colour. Internally darker and lighter spaces 
are scattered throughout the hyphse. x 1000. 
Ihg. 16. — Shows the whorled branching characteristic of the species. xlOOO. 
brown colour. These animal fragments were found to be in many cases 
penetrated through a*nd through by a fungus, the walls of which were 
covered with a hard black membrane of a carbonaceous nature. In Plate II, 
fig. 5, is shown a small fragment of an animal organism of which nothing 
remains except a few cells. The host organism was penetrated throughout 
its substance by the hyphse of the fungus under consideration. The hyphse 
themselves have become carbonised so beautifully that not only does the 
membrane stand out distinctly, but there seems to be a differentiation 
inside the threads discriminating the cytoplasm from the vacuoles. Again, 
there were two kinds of hyphse ; and as each kind was observed in organic 
connection with the other, both threads obviously belonged to the same 
organism (figs. 14 and 15). 
