AND AFFINITY OF SPHERIA POCULA. 509 
~ “Suberosa-coriacea, stipitata; stipitibus fasciculatim ex epi- 
dermide prorumpentibus, incurvis, sensim dilatatis in cupulas ob- 
verse pendulas, extus ex albido-fuliginosis, demum subfurfuraceis ; 
stipites semper crassi sunt. Cupulis excavatis, disco planiusculo, 
margine crasso, obtusato, inflexo-pulverulento. ^ Peritheciis im- 
mersis disco, minutis, monostichis lutescentibus, ostiolis nigris, 
vix prominentibus. Substantia cupularis intus ex albo-fuliginea 
aut badia, suberosa. Altitudo cæspitis et singularium eupularum 
4-5 lineas, diameter disci 2-5 linearis. tate provectiori, sti- 
pites fusco nigrescunt.” 
In all these instances the species was classed with the Sphari- 
acei, under what was then considered the subgenus Poronia, as 
an ally of the widely-diffused Poronia punctata. More recently 
it has been transferred by some authors to Hypocrea; and in this 
view I believe the Rev. M. J. Berkeley concurred. Fries, in his 
Summa Veg. Scan. (1846), placed it in the Dichenacei, in a genus 
almost especially designed for its reception, under the name of 
Enslinia (p. 399), which he characterized as analogous to Poronia. 
Wherever it was placed it was taken for granted that it was asco- 
mycetous, although evidently its structure was never properly 
investigated. With a single specimen to operate upon, derived 
directly from Schweinitz himself, and undoubtedly authentic, 1 
have arrived at a different conclusion. 
As already indicated, the entire fungus consists of a furfura- 
ceous cup-shaped brownish receptacle, about one or two lines in 
diameter, with a rather thick stem, bursting through the back of 
Fraxinus, either singly or in clusters, after the manner of a species 
of Peziza or Cenangium, but with this peculiarity, that the pune- 
tate disk was turned from the light by the pendulous habit, 
which is characterized as universal. Schweinitz says, “ Cupulas 
obverse pendulas,” and again, “semper cupulis universis penden- 
tibus.” This habit will be referred to again hereafter, although 
apparently of slight importance here. 
The disk is flattened and whitish, surrounded by the elevated 
margin of the cup, the surface sprinkled with apparently blackish 
points or dots, described, both by Fries and Schweinitz, as black 
ostiole of the supposed immersed perithecia. In the genus Poronia, 
as is well known, the perithecia are immersed in the substance of 
the disk, and only the black ostiola are seen on the surface ; from 
analogy, and a superficial examination with a pocket lens, the dots 
on thedisk of the Pocula were assumed to be of the «ame character, 
