SIDE LIGHTS ON THE POTATO DISEASE. 
153 
like the tuberiform base of Agaricus tuberosus, of which we 
shall have more to say anon. The brothers Tulasne have laughed 
at Berkeley’s idea of one perfect plant springing from two diverse 
sclerotia, one of which is said to be peculiar to spring, and the 
other to autumn and winter ; but when we bear in mind that 
“ Sclerotium ” is an altogether spurious genus founded on insuffi- 
cient material, we believe that our eminent mycologist, Mr. 
Berkeley, will be found in the end to be quite right. Be this 
as it may, it appears that Mr. Renny found a batch of these 
sclerotia (said to be peculiar to dead leaves) on the gills of de- 
caying Agarics — probably plants of Agccricus nebularis , 
Batsch. — and kept them in a dried state in his pocket-book for 
three years till last autumn, when he gave them to Dr. Bull, of 
Hereford, and requested him to plant them, which he accord- 
ingly did in a flower-pot. After a short interval of five or six 
weeks, and just at the time of the great Hereford 66 Fungus- 
foray,” all these Sclerotia had grown and pushed up their heads 
through the earth, in the form of numerous perfect plants of 
Typhula phacorrhiza , a handsome and somewhat rare fungus 
in shape like a long yellow thread or club. It is very singular 
that these members of the order Clavamei should have been 
found in a sclerotioid condition upon the gills of a white spored 
agaric ( Agaricus nebularis , Batsch.), which is notorious for 
producing another agaric ( A . Loveiunus , B.), with pink spores 
upon the top of its pileus. It is also worthy of note that in 
some instances two plants grew from one sclerotium , and, as a 
rule, the sclerotia were distinctly in pairs, a large specimen by 
the side of a smaller one : this habit, for which we can offer no 
proper explanation, is also common in the case of Agaricus tu- 
ber osus (Bull), and in both cases we have seen a single perfect 
plant supported on two tuberiform bases, caused by the shoots 
from the tubers coalescing at an early period of their growth. 
We are under the distinct impression, from actual experiment, 
that fungus-spores are generally very short-lived, and that they 
are almost immediately destroyed by dry air or too much mois- 
ture, and are only saved from destruction by their immediate 
germination after leaving the parent plant, and so forming 
dense masses of mycelium, which are able to more effectually 
resist wet and drought. This shortness of life in fungus spores 
need not cause us surprise when we remember how short-lived 
the true seeds of some flowering plants are, as in the Umbelli- 
ferce. I am assured by a practical plant and seed-grower, that 
the seeds of some species of Ferula will not germinate if they 
have been gathered for more than two weeks, whilst among the 
long-lived seeds of the Leguminosce , some species of Acacia 
have been known to rest for three years before germination 
took place (unless the outer coat of the seeds had been cut 
