of colouring they occasionally command attention, notwithstanding
their diminutive size. The species are called Myxo-
gastres, from their early mucilaginous condition.
There yet remains another very singular and distinct group
of closely allied Fungi, which contains hut a few British
species. These however are so curious or beautiful, that they
never fail to command admiration. One of them, Cyathus
vernicosus, is common in turnip-fields or amongst stuhhle, resembling
little cup-shaped sacs, full of eggs; and two others
are by no means rare, on dead fern-stems, sticks, etc. A
smaller Fungus, Sphxrobolus stellatus (Plate 21, fig. 2), is
remarkable for its expanding like a little star, and shooting
out with prodigious force by the inversion of its inner membrane,
a globose mass, which contains the fruit, just like a
shell from a mortar. These Fungi are known under the common
name of Nidulariei, from the nest-like appearance of the
more typical species. (See Plate 21,fig. 1, and Plate 2, fig. 2, 3.)
We now come to a large division of Fungi, of which little
is known to the general observer, because almost all its species
are so small, and in general so devoid of external beauty, that
it is only the lover of the microscope who is at pains to study
them. A large portion of them are to the naked eye mere
black specks upon leaves, twigs, etc., though the structure of
their spores is often very curious. Many, it is helieve’d, are
nothing more than conditions of some of the Fungi which are
comprised in the fifth great division of these plants. Some of
them have their spores contained in a distinctly organized cyst
{perithecium) others are merely concealed under the bark
or cuticle, while others are completely exposed. In the former
Ï’
(I
* The word peritheeium more properly applies, according to its etymology,
to the Sphariaoei and their close allies, hut it would be refining needlessly to
give the organ a distinct name here.
case the spores are usually simple, in the latter they are often
arranged in necklace-like threads of greater or less tenacity.
The general name of the division is Coniomycetes, from the
dust-like nature of the spores. The four first groups are known
under the names of Sphæronemei, Melanconiei, Phragmotri-
chacei, and Torulacei, the characters of which will he given in
the systematic portion of the work. I can point out no popular
representatives of these subdivisions. My more immediate
object is simply to give some general notion of the plants
comprised in the term Fungi, avoiding as much as possible all
microscopic characters.
There is still another important group, consisting of two
divisions, Pucciniæi and Cæomacei, of which a few species have
been long observed, though their real nature is often mistaken,—
I mean the Rust, Smut, and Mildew so prevalent and
injurious to our corn-crops, besides a host of species which
infest other plants while still in a living state. In two genera
of this group the parasites obtain such large dimensions, and
are of so bright a colour, that they can scarcely escape notice
where they abound. To this are referable the jelly-like masses
on the different species of Juniper (Tab. 2, fig. 4, 5), which
not only resemble the gelatinous Tremellæ in outward aspect,
but in some points of structure, proving clearly the connection
of the whole group of parasites with the higher Fungi, and
stultifying the views of those who regard these productions as
mere states of the cellular tissue of the plants on which they
are developed. Of these Fungi there are tw'o groups. The
Pucciniæi, to which the Wheat Mildew belongs, distinguished
by their articulate spores (Plate 1, fig. 4), and Cæomacei,
containing the Bunt, Bust, and other simple-spored, truly
parasitic, dust-like Fungi (Plate I, fig. 5).
Every one is acquainted with the large division of Fungi