214 
ON THE PILOBOLIDJE. 
principal London and provincial newspapers and periodicals, 
and to such other publications as the Committee may think 
desirable, with an appeal asking the Editors or Managers of 
the same to assist in creating a powerful and healthy public 
opinion on this subject. 
We feel that such an effort as we are advocating cannot 
be altogether barren of good results, although it may not 
effect all that we could earnestly desire, and that it will 
redound to the lasting credit of the Midland Union to initiate 
a movement the scope and object of which are so large and 
so important. 
ON THE PIL 0 B 0 L ID iE, 
WITH A SYNOPSIS OF THE EUROPEAN SPECIES, AND A 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW ONE. 
BY W. B. GROVE, B.A., 
HON. LIBRARIAN OF THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. 
(Continued from page 187.) 
h . —The Dewdrops. 
We have thus traced our Pilobolus nearly to the stage in 
which it was depicted in the opening remarks. It is now 
mature and ready to disperse its spores, but before proceeding 
to consider that interesting process it will be well to advert 
here to a few minor points connected with its growth. One 
striking phenomenon, which has arrested the attention of all 
observers of Pilobolus since its first discovery, is tlip appearance 
on the stem of what are called ‘ ‘ dewdrops.” Little round drops 
of a clear fluid, one, two, three, but often twenty to thirty in 
number, are seen adhering to the growing stem, in all stages 
from its first formation up to the completion of the swelling 
(Fig. 13), in the same way as drops of dew adhere to blades 
of grass and spiders’ threads. As Cohn says, we must suppose 
either that they are deposited on the outside by condensation 
of watery vapour from the surrounding atmosphere or excreted 
through the cell membrane as a superfluous product of the 
fungus itself. The dewdrops are unusually abundant on 
Pilobolus when growing in a damp locality, and we can 
observe similar drops deposited on withered stems of Mucor 
and other objects in their neighbourhood, so that probably in 
a saturated atmosphere some of the drops spring from that 
source. But that they do not all arise in this manner is 
