GROWING ABOUT HALIFAX. 125
SPHiERIA acaulis, aggregata fubtomentofa. An fpharia to- CLVHI.
montofa. 'Relban, l'lor. App. alt. p. 31, No. 1107? Muaa.
C O V E R E D SPH^RIA.
T A -B. . cxxy.
npHE whole clutter Is about thefize of. a brown muftard feed,
A and adheres, by its bafe, to the furface of the inner bark
df dead branches, forcing its way through the outer. While
young it is .covered with a' foft downy or cottony matter, of a
dead white colour j which cover falls off in the" progrefs_ of
growth, and leaves the aggregate naked, and of a ihihing
black. The plants are figured of their natural fize at a.—at
b. and c. they are magnified in two different degrees, to ihew
their appearance while furrounded, at the bafe, with the outer
bark of the wood on which they grow; at d. the outer bark is
removed, to give a diftinft fide view of the whole aggregate j
this is itill further magnified : —at, c. a fingle Spha:ria is further
magnified, to ihew the difpofition of the fphasrulae or feed
veilels. Thefe fphEEruiffi, when I opened them, Were fome of
them full of a pale coloured gelly, others had a black duft, and
fome feeihcd to. be empty.
- I found it growing in great plenty, on fallen decaying
branches of feveral kinds of trees, in Bradley-Woods, near
Elland, in February, 1789.
T