Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/704

 bark of trees with conspicuoisly rich yellow and orange or reddish variegated lustre, in lengthened continuous or shorter broken patches. When examined with a microscope it appears rising in the cracks or hollows in elongated capsules or spherules, sometimes emitting a thick mucilaginous liquid more copious than the capsule, and sometimes it is contracted to dryish cups, as if it had had a seed or powder. The magnified section shows this. TAB. CCCCXXXIX.

BOX-HILL, so famous for the Buxus sempervirens, E. E. 1341, produced this parasite rather plentifully. It forms under the skin of the leaf like most Aecidiums. It has, however, only a rugged broken border, and not any regular notches or serratures. The seed, when highly magnified, appears to be included in numerous stiped double capsules about 1OOOth of an inch in diameter, and of an ochraceous brown, TAB. CCCCXL.

MY son, J. D. C. Sowerby, who brought the last specimen from Box-hill, brought me this from Dorking on the 11th of August, 1814. It was the apparent cause of a very swollen peduncle (three or four diameters bigger than usual) to the leaves, now and then forming in little black looking spots outside and within, which on examination with a magnifier only exposed little clusters of minute spherulate granulæ, those in the centre brown, and those on the sides lighter. These or other small parasites belong more or less to all known plants.

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATION ON Tab. 387, Fig. O.

I SOMEHOW forgot to mention these three rings of colour. In the description of that plate I noticed the commencement of Fungus matter, and meant to show that colour in wood sometimes preceded it; yellow perhaps oftenest, gray or bluish next, and crimson, sometimes alone and in succession; and that the beginning of decay in various subjects might be thus indicated. I have, however, met with those who have considered the first and last as indications of soundness in wood, at the same time as it has been the cause of extensive mischief and expensive loss.