Among the thousand beautiful forms, structures and arrangements
which lie concealed from unobserving eyes, and, on
account of their minuteness, from all but the Cryptogamie Botanist,
the present individual possesses a no mean rank So
completely is it protected by the outer bark, that to accident probably
It owed Its first detection. On the decaying birch-trees of
the Scottish Highlands, it is however plentifully produced and
readily found by removing the white outer bark ; sometimes it
may be traced by a slight fissure on the surface, but a little
practice enables the cryptogamist to fix, with tolerable certainty,
on the trunks or branches which produce it.
Fig. 1. Cnjptosphceria pukhella, nat. size. Fig. 2. Ditto,
Separate spherules. Fig. 4. Thecx and sporules.
magnijied. Fig. 3.
.. I
ft
