of the plant, and resembles a lock o f crimson wool. Sporules lying among
the filaments, fine red, globular, minute.
This species, which I have chosen for the illustration of the
genus A rsc y ria , is one celebrated among mycologists for its
beauty; its vivid -colour would indeed render it conspicuous to
the most careless observer. To this circumstance must be attributed
its escape from that neglect to which such minute
plants were exposed in the days of the older botanists; for we
find it perhaps more frequently described and figured than any
other of its congeners.
I t frequently happens, that more than one peridium is produced
on the same stipes.
A r s c y r ia incarnata, figured by S t u r m in his Deutschland
Flora, and which Mr P u r t o n has probably quoted by
mistake for our plant, approaches the nearest to it, but is of a
delicate pink colom-, much smaller, and has a very short pale
stipes.
Fig. 1. A. punicea, nat. size. Fig. 2. Young plants. Fig. 3. A plant in the
act o f bursting. Fig. 4. The same, having lost its peridium. Fig. 5. ^
clustered variety. Fig. 6. Filaments and sporules All except Fig. 1. rm
or less magnijied.
A
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