159 
a temperature of 60° the quantity of fungi had visibly in- 
creased and the delicate mycelial thread-like roots, had 
completely entangled the fibrous objects contained in the 
bottle and formed them into a mass. 
On the third day a number of ciliated zoospores were 
observed moving freely amongst the sporidise. I could not 
detect any great variety of fungi in the contents of the 
bottle, but I cannot presume to say that all the visible spores 
belonged to one species, and as there are more than 2,000 
different kinds of fungi it is possible that spores of other 
species might be present, but not under conditions favour- 
able for their development. Some very pretty chain-like 
threads of conidia were visible in some of the examinations. 
The next in quantity is vegetable tissue. Some of this 
formed a very interesting object, with a high power, and 
the greater portion exhibited what is called pitted structure. 
The larger particles of this had evidently been partially 
burnt and quite brown in colour, and were from coniferous 
plants, showing with great distinctness the broad marginal 
bands surrounding the pits ; others had reticulations small 
in diameter. They reminded me of perforated particles so 
abundant in some kinds of coal. 
The brown or charred objects were probably particles of 
partially burnt wood used in lighting fires. 
Along with these reticulated objects were fragments of 
vegetation, resembling in structure hay and straw and 
hay seeds, and some extremely thin and transparent tissue 
showing no structure. These were doubtless some portions 
of weather-worn vegetation. A few hairs of leaves of 
plants and fibres, similar in appearance to flax, were seen, 
and as might have been expected in this city, cotton fila- 
ments, some white, others coloured, were numerous ; red 
and blue being the predominant colours. A few granules 
of starch, seen by the aid of the polariscope, and several 
long elliptical bodies, similar to the pollen of the lily, were 
