l 8 ° A P P E N D I X .
CCXXIX.
exctMr'na.
s P H J£ R I A,
SPHiERIA feffila ,remformia, extuspunBatus fubfulvus -fuifuhgomfos, ihtm fmnlhL
CONCENTRIC SPILERIA.
A LL the fpqcimens of this.plant, which i five teen, were perfeftly feffile, a d j
hermg to putrid wood by abroad flat bafe; it varies 1 fize, from i e bignrfs of
a chefnut to that a bullock's kidney; the ihape is alfo various, convex, cuftioned/
iudney-ihaped, or fwelled into bunches with intervening hollows. % •
The furface is hard, firm, fmooth,. and flippery to the touch, .but full of minutepunttures
; the bark or external; covering is, in itfelf, of a dark chefiyjt colour:- butat
one time, as at a. it is covered with a dark red duft or powder, which is the
flower of the plant. At another, this red powder is loft, and is fucceeded bya
powder of a vylvqty black colour, which is. the fccd. ¿ ^M'. '--
The fubftahce of the plant, in the infide, is compaft but brittle: it confifts of
various ftrata, of a kind of changeable gray colour,, diftinguilhed by concentric 1
or the lame colour, a little darkej.
The plant is perennial; and I fufpeft the circles to be-the growth of fo many-
A^oid ^ -vear a coat of new. feed vcffels, on the. furface o f .
The feedrveffels are net globular, but.of an urn or pitcher ihape: while the redpowder
is on the furface of the plant, they are nearly ihut at the mouths, and full of
a white gelly; when the black takes place,> they are open and filled withffiadk feeds,' '
a pprtion of them,, in both ftates, (the bark being removed) is feen a little magnified
This plant I gathered on old thorns in the park of Fixby-IIall-, it has alfo been,
gathered near Ellcmd, and fent me,. in great perfedion,, from the county of Durkcmu
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