IF there be any one branch of botanical study more likely than another to attract the special attention of the student of microscopy, it is the study of the minute fungi. Wherever his home may be, they come around him from month to month on all sorts of decaying or dead organisms - animal and vegetable. They float in the ponds and ditches, and their invisible spores are carried through the atmosphere in every possible direction, even along our streets and into our dwellings, especially our cellars. Most of these decompose for want of the required nidus, but countless thousands are developed into active vitality, and bring into existence most beautiful organisms. Now in this dead time of winter we have them in all damp places around our homes, often on the bread we eat and in the water we drink, on our cheese, and if we eat the tinned meats our cousins send us from Australia we may find the fungus there, in the shape of a hateful white patch. If we scan with careful eye our window panes we may find house flies who have sought out quiet corners where they might die, and there upon their dead remains we find a mass of minute white threads which are the filaments of a well-known and interesting fungus. Amongst what may be called the domestic fungi, we have that still worse family pest the ring-worm; no worm or any other animal, but a bona-fide plant, well-known and identified. A scientific friend of mine suffered some years ago from the infliction of this so-called ring-worm in his beard. He caught and tested the structure of the unwelcome visitor, and sent me specimens of its organism, including the spores. My friend, Mr. Tozer, the head of the fire department of our Manchester Corporation, a year or two ago sent me specimens of the ring-worm which had got upon many of his horses, and was breaking up the hairs into strange fractions of diverging fibres. Doubtless many of the diseases we suffer from have their origin in fungoid life, as yet only suspected, but may some day be known and eradicated. Already science has done much in this direction, but a wide field still remains to be investigated. The Sarcina ventriculi, a so-called fungus when I began microscopic study, but now looked upon as a Confervoid Alga, has played sad havoc with the human stomach. It is but recently that this little vegetable monster has been known, and even now it is a difficulty and a puzzle to the medical student. So during all the centuries of man's existence it has been doing its deadly work in the dark, disordering his vital functions, and doubtless abbreviating his span of life.

I remember a certain shoemaker in Sheffield, who some 30 years ago, was a sufferer from this pest unknowingly for a considerable period, and who was greatly reduced from being a very stout man to pitiful thinness, when a microscopist and a personal friend examined the fluid the shoemaker vomited, in which he at Once detected the Sarcina, and he told the sufferer that he had got the Sarcina ventriculi in his stomach. The poor fellow was horrified, thinking it must be some huge monster. Explanation followed, and the proper medicine soon destroyed the unwelcome guest.

From what I have said it will be seen that the study of the minute fungi is not only a pleasant occupation, and a matter of general scientific interest, but it is in a certain sense a duty we are bound to fulfil in our own interest, and for our personal protection and the public good. Before leaving this department of study let me refer to the Ergot of Rye, a minute fungus of the genus Claviceps. This taken in household bread has been known to produce the most fearful results, upon the details of which it is not desirable that I should dwell.

It is not for the medical student, but rather for what may be called the botanical student, that I write, that I may aid him in those studies which will be to him a pleasure rather than a profession. About this time of the year, with the prospect of spring before him, the student will be thinking of the leaf fungi, which are not yet nor can they come for some two or three months, but numerous others are to be found in woods and meadows, and elsewhere in places innumerable. I hope to have an opportunity next month of calling the attention of the student to some of these, in the meantime I may not inappropriately conclude by quoting the well-known inscription on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, "Si monumentum quaeris circumspice," for truly monuments of nature's handy work are all around him.

In concluding this paper for January it may be well to allude more specifically to some of the domestic pests which I referred to above. The too common one on bread is known as Ascophora mucedo, and will be familiar to every student of microscopy. This is the only species we have of that genus. Then we have the Mucors, of which many species are well-known. Mucor mucedo (*) on fruit, preserves, &c. M. clavatus on decayed fruit, as also Mucor amethysteus, which is the especial fungus of rotting pears. Then we have Mucor caninus, of the dung of cats and dogs, and numerous others, which I must leave to another occasion, through space at my command being fully occupied.

ABOUT this time when a large proportion of the potatoes and cabbages, and other vegetable wares of the market gardener have been sent to our large towns for sale, the unsaleable roots and stalks are scattered about in the fields or around the home of the grower. Now these well deserve the attention of the microscopist, for such organisms when in a state of decay, and especially after wet weather, are often more or less infested with very interesting fungi. One of them, Torula herbarum (*), I have met with in large quantity on decaying fibrous rootlets of potatoes in the neighbourhood of Manchester and elsewhere, as also on the stalk of cabbage. This fungus assumes the form of a black powder bursting through the cuticle of the plant. The atoms of powder or rather spores, for such they are, adhere together and form strings. Decayed stems of umbelliferous plants are frequently infested with this same Torula. Dead branches of willow often develop another species, Torula stilbospora (Taeniolella stilbospora), and indeed almost all the dead rotten sticks that may be found in a forest are liable to be infested with one or more species of Torula.

It is too soon in the year to look out for leaf-fungi but there is even now one such which grows upon the leaves of camellia. The first indications of the fungus will be found in the existence of a roundish brown patch on the leaf, which by degrees becomes white and then extremely minute black spots are quickly developed upon it. These when broken up by pressure in water are found to be filled with very small sporidia, made up of about three cells and decorated with very singular appendages. The name of this curious fungus Is Pestalozzia guepii (Pestalotiopsis guepinii). Dr. Cooke mentions others on the Cypress and on chips. These I have not met with, but I have found one not referred to by him on various pitcher plants, and especially on Sarracenia flava. The queer appendages connected with this fungus are more distinctly seen than are those upon the camellia leaf - P. guepii. One of the most interesting micro-fungi to be met with during the winter is Asterosporium hoffmanni (Botryosphæria hoffmannii). It must be looked for upon dead twigs of beech, and is said to be common, but I have not frequently met with it. The spores are made up of three or four compound cells, artistically arranged, and if the student succeeded in obtaining a good slide of them he will realize a large amount of pleasure in the examination of it.

After a farmer has used straw for bedding his cattle, he will frequently throw it in heaps about the homestead, and it will lie there until it is completely saturated with rain water. I have often met with it in this condition, and whenever I have I have in every instance met with an interesting fungus known as Chaetomium elatum (*), or "Straw Bristle-Mould," as it is called. This is well worthy the search of the student, and not difficult to find, indeed it is one of the commonest of the microscopic fungi.

There is an interesting fungus on onion peel, Aspergillus nigrum (Aspergillus niger), which is also found upon other organic tissues; but I have met with it in the most perfect state on Portugal onions; sometimes on the outward layers of the covering, and not unfrequently on the inner layers of the onion itself. The student will not have much difficulty in meeting with this object, for its intense blackness betrays it, and it is well worthy of his attention. There are other species of Aspergillus on damp paper, on rabbits' dung and other organisms, but it must suffice for me to have indicated the subject generally.

Upon the dead leaves of trees now lying on the ground in a state of decay numerous small fungi may be met with, amongst them the Fusidiums are pretty plentiful and well deserving of examination. They are of various colours, white, yellow, or grey. Fusidium Flavo-virens (Fusidium aeruginosum), the yellow variety, I found on oak leaves in plenty long ago. The white variety, Fusidium album, may be found in almost any locality where the oak itself grows. There is another interesting fungus which infests a large number of the dead leaves which now cover the ground in the woods, and is most distinctly visible as a white patch. It is Cylindrium septatum (Cylindrium elongatum) and is when seen under a 4/10th or 1/4 inch lens a most interesting object. Upon wood far gone in a state of decay, I frequently meet with micro-fungi of interest. Ægerita candida (Bulbillomyces farinosus) I have found frequently in Hough End Clough, which is within the reach of Manchester. On examination with the microscope it is found to consist of white round balls, and is well worthy of a place in any cabinet. The various species which I have referred to are a selection from an innumerable host which have been brought into existence since the winter came upon us, and are of great interest to the scientific student. Being unable to name all, I have preferred to refer to such as may be most easily identified by the young beginner in this branch of study.

IN the paper for last month I referred to the deeply microscopic fungus Pestalozzia Guepii (Pestalotiopsis guepinii), with its strange appendages, and I now take the Opportunity of informing the readers that this fungus may be found all the year round when the surrounding conditions of the camellia are favourable to its development. In one conservatory close to Manchester, I could at any time in bygone days if I required a specimen, at once procure it, and it must be an unusually healthy conservatory where the fungus is never developed. Now the spot referred to above is covered with houses, and I have to go farther away if I require specimens. The appendages are an excellent test as to the defining powers of a lens. In my earlier efforts in the examination of the fungus I was greatly puzzled and quite unsuccessful in my attempt to solve the difficulty. I employed a quarter inch, not a bad one by any means, but it had not the defining power necessary to the case. I then got a sixth, when with careful manipulation of the light I succeeded in obtaining a, perfect picture of the wings (for such they are) of this obscure, but very beautiful and very minute fungus.

The rains of autumn and winter, with the gradually decreasing temperature, bring before us numerous Sphæriacei, to some of which I called the attention of the reader last month. About six hundred species of this interesting family may now be met with all around, but more especially in woods and woody districts. Broken dead sticks and rotten wood in all possible conditions of decay form the soil or nidus on which they prefer to vegetate. In such districts and under such conditions the reader will have no difficulty in finding them. I have met with various species of them on logs of wood lying on the road side, and in fields, also on dead tree roots, some of them are as rare as they are beautiful. Sphæria Pulvis-pyrius (Melanomma pulvis-pyrius), or Gunpowder Sphæria is one of these, the latter name conveying an excellent description of the fungus with its powdery black atoms. Sphæria pulveracea (Coniochaeta pulveracea) dust-like Sphæria is another having a similar appearance. Then there is Sphæria spermoides (Lasiosphæria spermoides) having also a somewhat similar appearance, and others too numerous to mention. Some of the species are larger and more conspicuous, having the appearance of small cannon balls, but they assume various shapes and the larger proportion of them are black. On the dead stems of umbelliferous plants Sphæria vilis may now be found in woods in great plenty, and on dead rose stems Sphæria hypotephra; indeed, so numerous are the members of this family that it is difficult for the student not to find them. Two of the most plentiful and certainly two of the most interesting are found upon the dead stems of the common nettle and the dead stems of the potato plant, the former is Sphæria urticae the latter Sphæria herbarem (Pleospora herbarem) this is found also on other dead stems and is very common. One of the most conspicuous members of this large family is Xylaria hypoxylon (*), it grows in tufts and is commonly known as candle-snuff fungus, from the circumstances of the top of the fungus being covered with a white powder, having the appearance of the burnt ashes of candle-wick. The supposed candle is a black upright fungoid stalk, of usually from half an inch to two or three inches in height, and a thickness of a leather shoe string. The fungus is not difficult to find. Tree stumps rotting in the ground, in hedges or woods, are annually infested with it. The white powder is found under microscopic examination to be a mass of minute organisms which the young student may suppose to be spores, but they are known as Conidea, and the true spores are to be found in Asci, which are in the black Portion of the fungus. Amongst the family I am now speaking of, the Sphæriacei, of which Dr. Cooke, in his valuable hand-book, gives a list of about six hundred species, the Peziza occupy an interesting position. Many of them are comparatively large while others are extremely minute, yet they all partake of common characteristics and many of them are extremely beautiful in colour. Some are black, others white, but the gay bright colours are most prevalent, such as red, orange, yellow, brown, and purple, in all imaginable shades and degrees of beauty.

Peziza Calycina (Lachnellula subtilissima), I have frequently found on dead fir branches in Cheshire and Lancashire, and it may be found in any county in England. It is of a bright orange colour, and the fruit assumes the form of a small button. Sections of this fungus show the sporidia in asci very distinctly, and are deserving a place in nay microscopic cabinet. Peziza coccinea (Sarcoscypha coccinea) and Peziza rutilans (Neotiella rutilans) are both developed upon moss in damp localities. Their bright red colour makes them very conspicuous, although they are not large, these and numerous others are equally worthy of the attention of the student. There are other gaily coloured small fungi growing from the ground amongst dead leaves, or in sheltered places chiefly in woods, similar in thickness and shape to the candle-snuff fungus, but consisting of one solitary organism to which I desire to refer. These vary in colour, red, yellow, and white, with intermediate shades. The most interesting of this group, Torrubia as they are called, grow from the dead bodies of the larva of insects, as the student will see on digging up the fungus and examining what might be supposed to be its root. I remember the great pleasure I had in my first find of one of these strange plants. It was in Agecroft Wood, near Manchester, some years ago, when its glaring colour amongst dead leaves betrayed it. The species I found was Torrubia gracilis (Cordyceps gracilis), and was about an inch in height and rounded towards the top. One species Torrubia entomorrhiza (Cordyceps entomorrhiza ) has a rounded nob at the top, and there is one species where the fungus assumes the form of a tuft, this is Torrubia militaris (Cordyceps militaris). How it is that these fungi will only live upon the dead bodies of the larva of insects is a mystery which I will not attempt to solve. Numerous other similar frantic fancies in the vegetable kingdom might be given, but the subject is outside of my present intention.

In dealing with this numerous family of Sphæriacei, I have endeavoured to call the attention of the reader to such as may be most easily found and recognised, and thus furnish him with a general idea of their habits and structure, and what to look for. To do more than that was an impossibility in the space at my command. Let him become familiar with but the few which I have imperfectly indicated, and he will become influenced by an increased desire to know more, and then he may take advantage of the many excellent works which exist on the subject.

The leaf-fungi come pretty largely to the front in next month, and I have only once been so fortunate as to meet with a specimen so early as March. This occurred when rambling near Bangor in Ireland, in 1881, when I found the clustercups on Caltha palustris or Marsh Marigold, Æcidium calthae (Puccinia calthae) in excellent condition. Others may occasionally find leaf-fungi thus early, such cases may I think be looked upon as exceptions to the rule.