to examine them under the microscope, in order to ascertain
their distinctive characters. T ode, who bestowed the generic
name, has given five species, with figures, but they are without
dissections, and it is now difficult, indeed perhaps impossible,
to make out what he intended to represent, and his descriptions
are equally vague and unsatisfactory.
Myrothecium is most nearly allied to Trichoderma, and
differs from it, in the sporules being semifluid in their early
state, in which Myrothecium comes far nearer than Trichoderma
to many other Gastromyci. The mass of sporules
in Myrothecium appears also to me to be eventually far
more compact, and I have sometimes thought I perceived certain
erect septæ or cells throughout the whole central substance,
within which the sporules were situated : this, however, remains
to be confirmed.
Fig. 1 . M . Carmichaelii, nat. size. Fig. 2. Pkmts, magn. Fig. 3. A plant
removed. Fig. 4. A young plant. Fig. 5. A section, with spondes AU
except Fig, 1 . more or less magnified,