times, though rarely, forms a ring. In the fourth section the pileus is neither pelliculose nor viscid, and is broken up more or less into scales and fibrils. The species are often very beautiful, and A. sapineus, which occurs on trunks, chips, and sawdust in Scotland, is certainly one of our most beautiful fungi, though few are more variable.

Naucoria (from nauci, of little value) comprises various species agreeing in the cartilaginous stem, ferruginous spores, and the margin of the pileus being at first incurved. Some of the species are very beautiful, but the most beautiful have not at present occurred in this country, though some of our indigenous kinds are very interesting. In the first section, which has a smooth pileus and truly ferruginous spores, one of the most remarkable is A. cucumis, which has a peculiar odour, which is thought by some to resemble that of the cucumber, while others think that it is like that of some fish, and has in consequence been called A. pisciodorus. A. horizontalis also is an interesting species, from its swarming occasionally over the bark of living trees, after the fashion of the white-spored A. corticola. In these species the gills are broad, and only slightly adhered. A. melinoides, on the contrary, which belongs to the same section, and is one of our commonest species on close-shaved lawns, has truly adnate gills.

The second section has brownish spores, like some of the Pholiota. The more common species somewhat resemble in colour the smooth Hebelomata, and amongst them, one of the most generally diffused is A. semiorbicularis, which occurs everywhere in pastures.

The third section has a flocculent or squamulose pileus, with a definite veil. Here again we have more ferruginous spores. A. furfuraceus is perhaps the most common of Agarics, occurring at all seasons, and almost defying frost and snow. It assumes multitudinous forms, but under all is known by the pileus growing pallid when dry. A few have the pileus innatosquamulose, and are amongst the most interesting species, A. erinaceus (Fig. 7), which grows on fallen twigs, is always a welcome object, from its beauty and comparative rarity, and there are other interesting natives. Nor must we omit A. carpophilus, a little species which occurs on beech mast, and has the pileus rough with shining atoms, and distant, broad, ventricose, nearly free gills.

Galera (from galera, a conical hat), is an extremely natural group, characterized by ochraceo-ferruginous spores, and the straight margin of the more or less campanulate pileus, and is strictly analogous to Mycena amongst the white-spored, and Nolanea amongst the rose-spored Agarics.

The species of the first section, with a viscid pileus, are

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H

represented in this country by a single species, A. reticulatus, which is, however, extremely pretty, though small, and analogous to A. phlebophorus amongst the Hyporhodii.*

In the second section the gills ascend in the more or less conical pileus. Of these the very common A. tener is the best representative, as it is not only typical, but is found everywhere. A. apalus, Fr. (Fig. 8), is a rare native.

In a third section the gills are horizontal, and A. hypnorum in its various forms, whether on green mosses or sphagna, is to be found in all districts. On sphagnum it sometimes acquires a considerable development. The spores of all are pretty objects under the microscope, from the purity of their colour and their regular outline.

There remains only Crepidotus (from кρηπis, a shoe), which, like Pleurotus, is distinguished by its eccentric pileus, which in extreme cases becomes resupinate in consequence of the complete obliteration of the rudimentary stem. Very rarely the pileus from the first is cup-shaped, and the hymenium superior. Two or three of the species have pink spores, as A. depluens, Batsch (Fig. 9), and variabilis, and ought certainly to be associated with the Hyporhodii. They grow either on decayed wood, twigs, etc., or on moss. A. depluens occurs sometimes with a distinct, almost central stem. I am not aware whether any species has been found with purple-black spores, so as to have more evident relations with the next series.

Figures 1, 4, and 8 are copied from drawings sent to me by Fries.

* A. aleuriatus has lately occurred in Northamptonshire.

DETONATING METEORS OF FEBRUARY AND

NOVEMBER.

BY A. S. HERSCHEL, B.A.

Ir is probably very seldom that a large meteor passes over the islands of Great Britain without some particular notice of the occurrence being made in one or other of the many public journals, which separately and collectively chronicle the passing events of every large town in the United Kingdom. It is, however, seldom that the accounts can be collected. It is yet more seldom that a regular channel is opened to the details that private persons are often well able to furnish, but which, from principles of sufficient or insufficient reason, they either deem it unnecessary to record, or think them better left to professional observers to supply. It is thus that a meteor of the largest size, on the 21st of November, 1865, shot directly over London, which was probably disregarded by many, who would ere now have consigned it to oblivion, if these few remarks should not have the good fortune to recall the fact of its occurrence to their memory.

Among the published accounts of the fireball of the 21st of November last was a description of the meteor by Mr. Warren De la Rue, as it appeared to him near Cranford. The attention drawn by so great a name as that of the late President of the Royal Astronomical Society to the circumstance, was the cause that several private accounts of the meteor were received by Mr. Warren De la Rue from observers in all parts, to whom prompt acknowledgments were returned for the interesting details which they describe. I have selected from the documents the following particulars. A comparison together of the accounts, at the same time, permits the real altitude, position, and velocity of the meteor to be determined, at least approximately, within small limits of error.

The height of the meteor, at its first appearance, is determined from six independent accounts, each of which was separately compared with Mr. Warren De la Rue's original observation of the meteor at Cranford for the point of first appearance. The average error of the separate accounts is seven British statute miles above or below the true mean height, which is the mean of all the separate heights, and is taken as the height at first appearance. The height at disappearance is determined in a similar manner, from the same six accounts, compared with the apparent place of disappearance of the meteor as observed at Wimbledon by Mr. F. C. Penrose. The average error in this case is, as in the former case, about seven miles