98 Prof. Marshall Ward, Notes on some of the Rarer 
So far as I am able to judge, this species appears to bear 
a similar relation to Boletus to that which Lepiota rachodes bears 
to L. procera : that is to say the pileus becomes so shaggy that it 
breaks up into scale-like groups of hairs. I have seen a specimen 
of the common mushroom similarly strobilaceous, and scaly ex- 
amples of Boletus scaber suggest how simple the change might be. 
Winter 1 keeps it in the genus Boletus, and most authors seem to 
hesitate about placing it separately, though they still do so. 
Massee, however 2 , points out that the spores are warted. 
Trametes Pini, Fr. 
This destructive tree-killing parasite was seen at Aviemore 
on several of the Scotch pines, and specimens were collected. 
Hartig 3 worked out the peculiarities of its action on the wood, the 
tracheids of which are isolated by the solution of the middle 
lamella, and their walls delignified by enzymes secreted by the 
hyphse, and are transformed into soft cellulose and finally dissolved : 
since this occurs in patches and streaks, the injured wood exhibits 
very characteristic marks, from which the presence of the fungus 
can be inferred even in the absence of fructifications. Much 
damage accrues from the ravages of this parasite in some parts of 
Germany, but it appears to be little known with us. 
Passing to the Agaricini, Amanitopsis vaginata, Roze., may be 
mentioned, since, though common, it is now made the type of a 
new genus — an Amanita without the ring : I gathered the speci- 
men at Aviemore. 
Nyctalis asterophora, Fr. 
This was obtained, during an excursion in Norfolk with 
Dr Plowright, growing on Russula nigricans, and exhibits the 
quaint hymenophores powdered with the stellate spores, regarding 
which so much controversy was maintained. They are now known 
to be chlamydospores 4 which are formed in addition to ordinary 
oidia and basidiospores in this remarkable fungus. 
Galera tenera, Schaeff. 
This is not an uncommon fungus in grassy spots, but our 
modern English floras do not record it as a coprophilous form. It 
sprang up on horse-dung in the laboratory, and on cultivation in 
gelatine media I obtained the characteristically curved series of 
oidia described by Brefeld 6 , confirming the accuracy of his 
figures for this species in all respects. 
1 Kryptogamen Flora, vol. i. p. 463. 
2 Brit. Fungus Flora, vol. i. p. 257. 
3 Zersetzungserscheinungen des Holzes. 
4 See Bref., Untersuchungen, H. viii. PI. v. 
5 Brefeld, l.c. p. 51. 
