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On a Dead Spider in Water.—A descrip- of a fungus, which I observed last autumn upon a dead spider in water, may not be uninteresting to the readers of Science Gossip. It consisted of a mass of white filaments, from the eighth to a quarter of an inch in length. Upon examination under the microscope, these were resolved into two sets; one long and filamentous (figs. 1, 2), the other slightly branching, with spores either contained in spherical sacs, or arranged in lines in the interior of the filament (fig. 5). The former, which seem to be the male filaments,^[1] are at first filled towards the extremity with finely granulated matter (fig. 1). This, after a time, appears to break up, and develope into androspores, which are gathered together in a separate cell at the end of the filament. When the spores are ripe, the end gives way, and they escape. If one of these be burst by pressure, the contents which escape seem to consist of finely granulated matter, similar to that in the filaments. The other set of filaments exhibit a somewhat similar mode of growth. The cell-wall bulges out on one side, until a pear-shaped sac is formed, which, when filled with the granular matter, is shut off by a cell-wall, and the contents are gradually developed into circular spores, somewht larger than the spores of the other filaments.

On a Dead Fly in Water.—I observed a very similar, if not the very same species of fungus upon a dead fly in water. Figs. 6 to 9 show different stages in the development of the spores. When mature, they exhibit small radicles, which penetrate the wall of the sac. It seems probable that the spores increase within the sac by cell-division, since some of them (figs. 11, 12) have double nuclei.

1. ↑ These are not male filaments, but produce zoospores, and not androspores, as supposed.—Ed. S. G.