301 
ON THE P1LOBOLIDJE. 
ON THE PILOBOLIDHE 
WITH A SYNOPSIS OP THE EUROPEAN SPECIES, AND A 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW ONE. 
BY W. B. GROVE, B.A., 
HON. LIBRARIAN OR THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. 
(Continued from page 28i.) 
In 1870 Klein gave to tlie world liis monograph “ Zur 
Kenntmss des Pilobolus,” a monument of patient and minute 
investigation, such as only a German could produce. In this 
he describes two species, P. crystal Linus and P. microsporus ; 
under the former name he says that he unites the P. crystal- 
linus and P. ceclipus of former authors. But, though he 
records his painstaking observations with minute accuracy, 
in respect of the identification of his specimens Klein was 
peculiarly unfortunate. His P. microsporus is identical with 
P. roridus, and he was unacquainted with either the true 
crystal Linus or the true cedipus. He had before his eyes, 
without knowing it, another species hitherto undistinguished, 
to which Van Tiegliem afterwards gave in his honour the 
name of Pilobolus Kleinii. The spores of cedipus are yellow, 
nearly spherical, and surrounded by a thickened epispore ; 
those of crystallinus are ellipsoidal and nearly colourless. 
Now the spores of P. Kleinii are also ellipsoidal, but of an 
orange-yellow colour, and twice as long as those of crystallinus; 
but under certain circumstances it bears sporangia containing 
nearly spherical spores of the same colour, but without a 
thickened epispore, and it was this abnormal state, to which I 
shall, in the fifth part of this essay, give the name of forma 
splicer ospor a, that led Klein erroneously to imagine that he 
had met with forms intermediate between cedipus and crystal¬ 
linus. Here we have the true mischief-maker, which has 
been the cause of so many errors. The credit of clearing up 
this difficulty is due to Van Tiegliem, and I am pleased to 
be able to corroborate his observations by my own. On many 
occasions I have found the first two or three days’ crops of 
P. Kleinii to bear small sporangia, containing roundish spores, 
of unequal size in the same sporangium. These, however, 
could be distinguished at once by the want of the thickened 
