n, a very immature
condition was examined, containing simple beaded, hyaline bodies,
attached to each other by a short neck. The same appearance of beaded
spores, when seen _in situ_, was recognized by a mycological friend,
to whom specimens were submitted for confirmation.[U]

The last production which made its appearance on our wall-paper burst
through the varnish as little black spheres, like grains of gunpowder.
At first the varnish was elevated by pressure from beneath, then
the film was broken, and the little blackish spheres appeared. These
were, in the majority of cases, gregarious, but occasionally a few of
the spheres appeared singly, or only two or three together. As the
whole surface of the damp paper was covered by these different
fungi, it was scarcely possible to regard any of them as isolated,
or to declare that one was not connected with the mycelium of the
others. The little spheres, when the paper was torn from the wall,
were also growing from the under surface, flattened considerably by
the pressure. The spherical bodies, or perithecia, were seated on a
plentiful hyaline mycelium. The walls of the perithecia, rather more
carbonaceous than membranaceous, are reticulated, reminding one of
the conceptacles of _Erysiphe_, to which the perithecia bear
considerable resemblance. The ostiolum is so obscure that we doubt
its existence, and hence the closer affinity of the plant to the
_Perisporiacei_ than to the _Sphaeriacei_. The interior of the
perithecium is occupied by a gelatinous nucleus, consisting of
elongated cylindrical asci, each enclosing eight globose hyaline
sporidia, with slender branched paraphyses. A new genus has been
proposed for this and another similar form, and the present
species bears the name of _Orbicula cyclospora_.[V]

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 s