which I have added of this Tribe, in the first Figure
of the XII.
Scheme, which is nothing else but
the appearance of a small white spot of hairy mould,
multitudes of which I found to bespeck & whiten over
the red covers of a small book, which, it seems, were
of Sheeps skin, that being more apt to gather mould,
even in a dry and clean room, then other leathers.
These spots appear’d, through a good
Microscope,
to be a very pretty shap’d Vegetative body,
which, from almost the same part of the Leather, shot
out multitudes of small long cylindrical and transparent
stalks, not exactly streight, but a little bended
with the weight of a round and white knob that grew
on the top of each of them; many of these knobs I observ’d
to be very round, and of a smooth surface, such as
A, A, &c. others smooth likewise, but a little oblong,
as B; several of them a little broken, or cloven with
chops at the top, as C; others flitter’d as ’twere,
or flown all to pieces, as D, D. The whole substance
of these pretty bodies was of a very tender constitution,
much like the substance of the softer kind of common
white Mushroms, for by touching them with a Pin, I
found them to be brused and torn; they seem’d
each of them to have a distinct root of their own;
for though they grew neer together in a cluster, yet
I could perceive each stem to rise out of a distinct
part or pore of the Leather; some of these were small
and short, as seeming to have been but newly sprung
up, of these the balls were for the most part round,
others were bigger, and taller, as being perhaps of
a longer growth, and of these, for the most part,
the heads were broken, and some much wasted, as E;
what these heads contain’d I could not perceive;
whether they were knobs and flowers, or seed cases,
I am not able to say, but they seem’d most likely
to be of the same nature with those that grow on Mushroms,
which they did, some of them, not a little resemble.
Both their smell and taste, which are active enough
to make a sensible impression upon those organs, are
unpleasant and noisome.
I could not find that they would so quickly be destroy’d
by the actual flame of a Candle, as at first sight
of them I conceived they would be, but they remain’d
intire after I had past that part of the Leather on
which they stuck three or four times through the flame
of a Candle; so that, it seems they are not very apt
to take fire, no more then the common white Mushroms
are when they are sappy.
There are a multitude of other shapes, of which these
Microscopical Mushroms are figur’d, which
would have been a long Work to have described, and
would not have suited so well with my design in this
Treatise, onely, amongst the rest, I must not forget
to take notice of one that was a little like to, or
resembled, a Spunge, consisting of a multitude of little
Ramifications almost as that body does, which indeed
seems to be a kind of Water-Mushrom, of a very pretty
texture, as I else-where manifest. And a second,
which I must not omit, because often mingled, and neer
adjoining to these I have describ’d, and this
appear’d much like a Thicket of bushes, or brambles,
very much branch’d, and extended, some of them,
to a great length, in proportion to their Diameter,
like creeping brambles.