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Show 4 The Hiflory of P L A N T S. s h' . . l f f1 I r d . the cut parts one to another; but t 1S It retams on y .l ~fr;fi~t\~ ~mr 1~r!cs~n aJdc~~e~nflaccid, and finks into the volva a~ainl and t~e~ bot~ dec~y together Th'e fruit cut open, and examined with a g?od micro cophe, lllS oun Tto he compofe·d of a membrane, fio rmm· g one ce1 1 , which is , m gr.e a1t part , ol 'ko w. l b 1o t ef u er art of it's inner furface are affixed the antherre, wh1c J appe_ar 1 e g_ 0 u es _o duPfPl: , bpu t are o f an o bl ong r rm and the refi of it's cavity is filled With round1D1, whtte 10 , fee*his £i ecies is common, in many of our ~oods, on the !lumps of old trees,_ and on the deadp !licks that lie about among the leaves. I have frequently ~1et ~lth gr~at 1 c ufnl. ers of 1· t 1·1 1 c ane-wo od , I·n Otl:ober and November. It appears hke little wh1te blifiers on the furface of the wood. 2. Carpobolus fegmentis longioribus. 'rhe Carpobolus with longer figments. The firfi appearance of this plant is much like that of the for-?'ler, a mere tubercl~, of a whiti!h colour, and fomewhat dufiy furface: as foon as 1t opens, however, 1t fhews itfelf to be a very different fpecies. The fegme?ts ~f. the yolva are lo11ger and narrower, and the inner cup or body o~ the -':"ungus IS ~1v1ded m the fame manne:, nd is of a beautiful yellow colour, wh1ch, With the white of the volva every-whcte ~urrounding it, has a very pretty effeCt. Tl::e fruit, which lies at the bottom _of t~e cup is fmall and round. The whole plant is not more than a twelfth of an mch 111 dia~eter at the rim, and of about the fame depth, being nearly the half of a h?llow fphere. When the fruit is ripe, the cup, or hollow body. of the ~ungus, turns mfide out, and, becoming infiantaneoufly convex, darts the fr~It, from 1t to a confiderable dillance. The fruit is bro•.vn, and of the fize of a fmall pm s-head, round, and full of minute, round, whitifh feeds. This fpecies is lefs freque~t with us than th~ former: I do not remember to have obferved it any where, except m Charlton-forefi m Suffcx, where it is not uncommon about the dead frumps of trees. Micheli defcribes it under the name of Carpobolus aureus volva albida, frutl:u obfcuro, feminibus albidis fubrotundis. 3· Carpobolus fegmentis undulatis. 7be Carpobolus with undulated figments. This is the moil: elegant and beautiful of all this genus. It appears at firfi: in form of a little red pu!lule, no bigger than a pin's-head : a thoufand of thefe are often feen together on a fiick or rotten board. From this it expands at the top, and the volva and cup itfelf are both divided at their edges into fegments, fix or eight in number, very lhort, and undulated at the edges; in the center of the cup lies the fruit, which is round, and of a duiky purple, all the refi of the Fungus being of a bright vermilion colour. When the fruit is ripe, it is difcharged with violence, in the fame manner as from the other fpecies. This is frequent, in the woods in Leicefi:edhire, on rotten fiicks of all kinds, but it's finallnefs has made it, like the others, little obferved or regarded. Thefe are all the known fpecies of this elegant little plant; from the defcriptions and charatl:ers of which it abundantly appears, that they are not of the lycoperdon kind. If the inner and outer cup were compofed of two contiguous membranes, and made but one common volva, which, feparating afterwards, raifed the body of the Fungus with the upper membrane, it would refemble, in that refpeet, the fiellate Iycoperdon; but this, though it appears to have been underfi:ood to be the cafe, is not fo: the two cups are, from the beginning, two feparate bodies, not as in the vel va of thofe Fungi, the two membranes of one fubfiance, F UNGI. Tbe Hij}ory of P L A N T S. ss FUN G 1 Clqfs the Third Genus tbe Sixth. CYATHIA. C Y AT HI A is a genus of Fungus confifiing of a hollow conic, cylindric, or hemifpheric body, covered with a thin membrane at the top, and containing in it's cavity fe veral roundifh fruits, of the nature of the fingle one of the carpobolus. each atiixed to the inner furface of the cup by a fine ihort filament. Thefe plants produce diilinet male and female flowers, both within the cavity of the fruits. The male flowers confifi of fingle anther:e, adhering to the upper part of the inner furface of the fruit; the refi of it's cavity is filled with feeds, inveloped, while unmature, in a mucilaginous matter. Linnreus makes the peziza of Dillenius of the fame genus with this, but erroneoufly: the pezizre have, indeed, the external cup-like ihape of the Cyathia, but they have nothing of it's manner of frutl:i.fication. I . Cyathia elatior campanttlata. The taller, beli-Jhaped Cyathia. This is the moO: frequent with us of any of the fpecies of this genus. It adheres to the fubfiances it grows on, by means of a fibrous root, varioufly divaricated ; from this there firfi arifes a roundi!h oval or irregularly figured tubercle, of about a fourteenth of an inch in diameter, on which the plant feems to be fixed, as on a bafe, or pedicle: from this it rifes in the form of a bell, but fomewhat too long for it's breadth to be exatl: in that fo rm; it's bottom is narrow, and fi·om this it gradually expands and increafes in width to the top, where it is a third of an inch, or more, in breadth, and it's verge is ufually, when ripe, turned down a little, and undulated. While young, it is covered at the top with a fine thin membrane, which fcems firained over it as a bladder over the mouth of a glafs. This membrane foon after cracks in the middle, the cracks running four ways, in the oppofite direCtions, and, foon after, the fegments curl up and wither, fo as entirely to dif.'lppear. When this membrane burfis, the mouth of the F ungus expands, and it's cavity is found to be filled almofi to the top with fruits; th ey are of a roundiD1 figure, and are fo large, that twelve or fourteen of them fiJI up the whole cavity of the bell : they are each affixed to the fides or bafe of the Fungus by it's own particular pedicle, which, when they are mature, wither and let them loofe. T he whole plant is of a duiky blackiD1 colour. The fruit cut open, while young, feems a mere mafs of fungous matter; but, if opened, when near maturity, anther;;c, like thofe of the other Fungi, will be found adhering fingly, each on it's own filament, to the internal part of the furface at the top, and the rell: of the cavity is filled with a glutinous matter, in which there are lodged a great quantity of oval feeds. The double microfcope is the mofi ufeful in thefe examinations, and, as the glutinous matter is too thick to be conve niently viewed by this in it's natural fiate, it may be diluted with a little water, and the feeds will then be difl:inetly vifible. To fee the an therc.e, :1 fegment of the upper part of the fruit is to be placed before the largefi fingle magnifier that can be procured : Mr Cuff has furni01ed me with my glaffes, which are ex ellent. Mofi of the botanical writers have defcribcd this Fungus, though few of them have had any jufl: idea of it's frud:ification. Micheli difcovered the feeds; the anthcrre have not, that I know of, been defcribed before. Ray calls it Fungns calcyiformis feminifer; Clufius, Fungus minimus anonymus; and Tournefort, Fungoidcs infundibuliforme fcminc fretum. It is frequent about the fiumps of old gate-poils, and on the fia.lks of plants trod down and rotting, particularly on the fialks of corn. It is to be found from autumn till April. 2- C;·athia |