ON THE PILOBOLID.E. 
281 
This record, therefore, may be considered to have reference 
to P. roridus. It is repeated by Ray in his Historia Plant- 
arum 1 (1704), and again in his Synopsis 2 (1724), and by 
Petiver in his Gazophylacenm 3 (1711), where he gives a 
figure identical with that of Plukenet. 
Another mention of a fungus belonging to this genus (the 
earliest known to Coemans, in his review 4 of the abundant 
literature of the subject up to his time) is due to Henry Baker 
(1744), who, in his Natural History of the Polype Insect, 5 
describes a number of small vase-like plants, filled with a 
clear liquid, and crowned with a black ball; these, which he 
found on mud brought from the Thames, were undoubtedly a 
species of Pilobolus. 
In 1764 Otto Muller discovered, and afterwards described 
and figured 6 a Pilobolus, under the name of “ Kristall- 
Schwammchen; ” he imagined that it was in part an animal 
and in part a plant, and even in part a crystal, thus partaking 
of all three kingdoms of Nature. The singularity of this view 
accounts for the widespread attention which was given to his 
discovery. . 
Scopoli, in 1772, 7 first gave a name to the plant, which 
showed that he recognised at that early time its true 
affinities. He called it Mucor obliquus, from the oblique 
manner in which the stem frequently springs from the side of 
the basal reservoir, but Ins description is insufficient to enable 
us to recognise the species. 
Withering, in his Botanical Arrangement 8 (1776), quotes 
Petiver’s plant from Ray’s Synopsis, and bestows upon it the 
name of Mucor roridulus. 
In Weber’s Primitiae Florae Holsaticae (1780), p. 110, 
Scopoli’s species is placed in a new genus under the name of 
Hydrogera crystallina. 
But the first good description of the genus was given by 
Tode, in 1784, 9 who imposed upon the species the name of 
Pilobolus crystallinus , by which it is now known. The generic 
name is a translation of the title “ Hutwerfer,” under which 
1 Hist. Plant, vol. iii., p. 24. 
2 Syn. Meth., ed. iii., p. 13. 
3 Gazophyl., pi. 105, fig. 14. For the quotations from Petiver and 
Plukenet I am indebted to Mr. Jas. Britten. 
4 Monograpliie du Genre Pilobolus, pp. 7 ff. (18G1.) 
5 Chap, xi., pi. 22, figs. 9,10. 
6 Kleine Schriften aus der Naturliist., p. 122, pi. 7. 
7 Flora Carniolica, ii., 494. 
8 Bot. Arr., ii., p. 784. 
9 Sclirift. der Naturf. Berlin. Gesell., v., 46, pi. i. 
