Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/439

but am inclined to think him mistaken. The plant had a beautiful appearance in the water, from the fibres diverging in every direction, and its whiteness, which was lost when it became dry. The extremities were peculiarly brittle. Even the agitation of the water broke off large quantities. This produced great inconvenience, and several attempts were made to destroy the plant, by clearing it away; which not succeeding, the timber was, at length, removed. Oak has been substituted, smeared with tar, pitch and tallow, which has hitherto had the desired effect. The old beam has been used for other purposes."—Such is Mr. Bainbrigge's very accurate account. Mrs. Hardcastle of Derby, to whom I am indebted for the drawings now laid before the Linnæan Society, regrets that she only heard of this curious vegetable production by accident, after it had lain by ten months in a dry state. Her drawing therefore represents this state only, and is here accompanied by a very small portion of the original specimen. This, in its brown and shrivelled appearance, much resembles the roots of willows or poplars, such as often find their way under ground into some adjacent river, or water-course. These have often been brought for my inspection, and I must confess they have led me to doubt the existence of some reputed Rhizomorphæ; but I shall in future be more precise in my examinations, lest I should inadvertently confound with them any genuine fungus. That the present is really of the latter description, appears from its history, as well as from the texture of the dried plant, whose internal substance does not, like a root, consist of concentric circles, but of an uniform congeries of longitudinal parallel tubes, in the dried specimen at least, of a yellowish colour. There is nothing like a central pith. And yet the brown external coat, though not separable like the bark of a root, bears so great a resemblance to that part, as almost to stagger my