i3o AN HISTORY OF FUNGUSSES,
CLXIV. SPHiERIA Jiipitata, ftipite flavo cylindrico, pileo ovato caftanen:
agarki. punSiato fubgeminato, radix tubrofo bivolvato inttm ni^ro. Flora
ferai a. Danica, faf. 9, p. 8, t. 540.
A G A R I C S P H jE R I A.
T A B. CXXX.
f ~ \ F this Angular, curious, and - very rare plant, on the fifteenth
V ^ / of Oftober, 1786, I gathered the five fingle fpecimens, which
are exaftly figured on the upper part of plate 130«; I brought
them, ihut up in a tin box, amongft other Fungi, and on opening
the box the following morning,obferved a (mall gelatinous drop
in every pore, on the furface of the pileus when, on expofing them
to the warm funihine in my window, in the fpace of an hour the
gelatinoùs particles dried up, and a white powder wag copioufly difcharged
on a picce of blue paper, ,upon which the plant was laid.
On the twenty-eighth of October, .1787, I faw the plant again, as
^ i t is figured .on the plate, at a.b.h. It did not, in lying by me a
whole day, make any kind of exudation from the pores ; but the
fécond day, on being immerfed in clear fpirit of wine, the gelatinous
particles immediately began to exude ;Jip a few days the plant contraéted
very much in fize, and afterwards the black turfy fubftance
fouled the fpirit, till it now appears quite black, and the plant has
t loft three fourths of its original bulk. %
A fe&ion of the pileus, to (hew the difpofition of the fphay'uls
(or rather ovoe, for they are oval), is feen at <?. ' A particle, cut- off at n.
is very highly magnified at k.-r-o.o. arc pores
communicate with the ovae within.
The root is black, and «of a turfy, fpongy fubftance; it is furrounded
with a thick volva, which is of the fame fubftance with, and
a continuation of, the ftem. This volva is furrounded by another,
which is dry, huiky, and of a -brownifh green or greeniih brown.
This outer volva is attached to the inner one, by a few radical fibres.
The ftem while young is folid and fmooth, when old becomes
fiftular, furrowed, and a little twined:: In both ftates it is foft, pliable,
and eafily fplits in yellow" ihining filaments. It turns black and rots in
decay*.
Grows in Ramfden-Wood, below Higbfield, near Halifax.
P9