The most singular circumstance connected with this narrative is the presence together of four distinctly different species of fungi, all of them previously unknown and undescribed, and no trace amongst them of the presence of any one of the very common species, which would be supposed to develop themselves under such circumstances. It is not at all unusual for _Sporocybe alternata_, B., to appear in broad black patches on damp papered walls, but in this instance not a trace was to be found. What were the peculiar conditions present in this instance which led to the manifestation of four new forms, and none of the old ones? We confess that we are unable to account satisfactorily for the mystery, but, at the same time, feel equally unwilling to invent hypotheses in order to conceal our own ignorance.
[A] These predilections must be accepted as general, to which there will be exceptions.
[C] Badham's "Esculent Funguses," Ed. i. pp. 42, 116.
[D] An excellent white Agaric occurs on ant nests in the Neilgherries, and a curious species is found in a similar position in Ceylon.
[E] Westendorp, "Les Cryptogams après leurs stations naturelles."
[F] Cooke, "On Nettle Stems and their Micro-Fungi," in "Journ. Quekett Micro. Club," iii. p. 69.
[G] Westendorp, "Les Cryptogams après leurs stations naturelles," 1865.
[I] W. G. Smith, in "Journ. Botany," March, 1873; Berkeley, in "Grevillea," vol. i. p. 88.
[J] Fuckel, "Symbolæ Mycologicæ," p. 240.
[K] Robin, "Végét. Parasites," p. 622, t. viii. f. 1, 2.
[L] Tulasne, "Selecta Fung. Carp." iii. p. 12.
[M] "Hist. de l'Acad. des Sciences," 1769. Paris, 1772.
[N] Berkeley, "Crypt. Bot." p. 73; Hooker, "New Zealand Flora," ii. 338.
[O] "Philosophical Transactions," liii. (1763), p. 271.
[Q] "Popular Science Review," vol. x. (1871), p. 25.
[R] Specimens of this mould were distributed in Cooke's "Fungi Britannici Exsiccati," No. 356, under the name of _Clinotrichum lanosum_.
[S] Cooke's "Handbook of British Fungi," p. 602.
[T] Cooke's "Fungi Britannici Exsiccati," No. 329, under the name of _Sporidesmium polymorphum_ var. _chartarum_.
[U] This reminds one of Preuss's _Alternaria_, figured in Sturm's "Flora;" it has been suggested that the mould, as seen when examined under a power of 320 diam., is very much like a _Macrosporium_. Again arises the question of the strings of spores attached end to end.