| # MICRO-FUNGI: WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND THEM by ## Thomas Brittain 1882

## MARCH IN the paper for last month I referred to the deeply microscopic fungus Pestalozzia Guepii, 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 Sphaeriacei, 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. Sphaeria Pulvis-pyrius, or Gunpowder Sphaeria is one of these, the latter name conveying an excellent description of the fungus with its powdery black atoms. Sphaeria pulveracea dust-like Sphaeria is another having a similar appearance. Then there is Sphaeria 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 Sphaeria vilis may now be found in woods in great plenty, and on dead rose stems Sphaeria 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 Sphaeria urticae the latter Sphaeria 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 Sphaeriacei, 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, 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 any microscopic cabinet. Peziza coccinea and Peziza 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, and was about an inch in height and rounded towards the top. One species Torrubia entomorrhiza has a rounded knob at the top, and there is one species where the fungus assumes the form of a tuft, this is Torrubia 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 Sphaeriacei, 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, Aecidium 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.

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