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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
growing on specimens of Peziza hemispherica on the wall of Compton 
Place in February last. The Peziza was growing amongst moss and on the 
rubbish of the wall, and externally presented the usual appearance of this 
fungus — that is to say, it was brownish, sessile, hemispherical, and clothed 
with dense fasciculate hairs, and varied in size from two lines to one inch 
in breadth. On examining, however, the hymenium, or fruit-bearing sur- 
face, he found it rough and papillate, an appearance altogether different 
from the usual hymenium of a Peziza ; and on making a vertical section of 
the disc, discovered that the hymenium was thickly studded with pale 
brown perithecia or peridia, immersed among tiie asci belonging properly to- 
the Peziza, and filled with very dark brown lemon-shaped spores, lying free 
in their receptacle. The perithecia were immersed at various depths in the 
hymenium of the Peziza, and were crowned with hyaline septate bristles. 
The asci and sporidia of the Peziza existed in the usual form, but seemed 
not so luxuriant as usual. As he could find no description of this fungus 
in the books on British Fungi, he referred the matter to Mr. M. C. Cooke, 
who, like himself, was disposed at first to regard it as coniomycetous, as no 
asci could be discovered; but further consideration of the subject led him to 
the opinion that it belonged to the genus Melanospora of Corda, which is 
ascomycetous,'and this opinion was confirmed by Mr. Muller’s being able to 
discover in the early stage of the fungus the existence of delicate asci, in 
which the lemon-shaped sporidia are produced. These asci are quickly 
dissolved away as the sporidia become mature, so that the latter appeared 
in the perithecia perfectly free, as spores appear sometimes in the peridium 
of a coniomycetous fungus. Finally Mr. Cooke has named the plant 
Ceratostoma Helvetica “ Peziza Ceratostoma.” It is entirely new. Only 
two species of this genus have been found in Great Britain, and the character 
of the genus as given in Cooke’s u Handbook ” differs materially from that 
of the specimen under notice, so that it may be still questioned whether it 
has yet been correctly named. Messrs. Berkely and Broome regarded it as 
a species of Melanospora , no species of which genus has hitherto been re- 
corded in Britain. We should like, however, to have Mr. Cooke’s opinion 
on the matter. 
The Curious Fertilisation of Pedicularis Canadensis. — This has been care- 
fully observed by Mr. Gentry, who has described the process fully to the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The flower of this plant is 
composed of an erect tube, with a natural cleft running along its lateral 
walls from above, through one-third its entire length, presenting outwardly 
apparently a mere crease, from the manner in which the compressed 
margins of the upper lip fit into the rolled-in edges of the lateral lobes of 
the under lip. The upper lip is compressed, arched, and beaked, present- 
ing an aperture at the apex, through which passes a curved pistil ; the 
lower lip is reflexed, consisting of three lobes, one median and two lateral, 
assuming a platform arrangement. Enclosed within the upper lip are four 
stamens, didynamous, with their anthers turning backwards, facing each 
other ventrally. When ripe these anthers split upon the inner side, thus 
giving a fancied resemblance to an oval snuff-box thrown backwards upon 
its hinges. Each cell is filled with white pollen-grains. Now when the 
bee alights upon the tube, by means of its trunk it opens the natural cleft 
