30 
of Botany for 1844, p. 478.—Androcryphia porphyrorrhiza, Nees. 
Synop. Hepat., p. 470. 
This plant stands erroneously described in the works referred to 
above. By the inflorescence, fructification, texture of the frond, 
mode of growth, rootlets, etc., it is a true Pellia. 
Involucre usually a little longer than in P. epiphylla, otherwise 
very similar. Calyptra included, about equalling the involucre, 
bearing abortive pistillidia on its (otherwise smooth) surface. 
Pedicel 1—2 inches high. Capsule pale, globose, 4-valved. Spores 
large. Elaters very slender, long and tortuous bi (— tri ?)-spiral. 
Autheridia solitary, enclosed in ovate-lageniform sessile involucres, 
(which Nees appears to have mistaken for pistillidia), not biseriate 
(as affirmed by Taylor). Lobes of the frond almost always distinct 
and leaf-like, roundish (rarely if ever oblong). Purple tinge of the 
rootlets (from which the plant takes its specific name) much less 
decided than I have usually found it in P. epiphylla. Apex of 
the surculi often descending and producing a turion, (as in vari- 
ous other of the frondose Hepatice). Although antheridia and 
pistillidia occur in the same cespites, I have not seen them on the 
same frond. The midnerve is narrower and thinner than in P. 
- epiphylla ; and I have not been able to detect anything similar to 
the network of colored fibres, which sometimes occurs in that 
| species; otherwise the texture in the two species is similar. Fronds 
from 1—2 inches long, by 2—4 lines broad; the lobes roundish and 
b : leaf-like, succufous. 
2 Pellia epiphylla, (Linn.), Nees. In this species the involucre is 
2 often reduced to a mere flap, covering the fruit-bearing cavity. 
Calyptra always distinctly tuberculated. 
I once supposed that I had discovered pores in the upper surface 
of the frond in this species; but this is most likely an illusion. — 
They are probably the ends of the anastomising fibres of the 
peculiar network, which often exists throughout the middle of the 
frond, showing through the superimposed layer of hyaline cells. 
This network resembles a series of parallel, vertical, and transverse 
perforated screens. When furnished with this peculiar network, 
the frond is always transversely rugulose. 
Pellia calycina, Tayl., occurs on wet limestone and slate rocks 
& in this country, as well asin Europe. It is readily distinguished by 
be the ciliate-fringed or lacerate mouth of the involucre, and by the 
c / smooth included calyptra. P. fugiformis, Nees, is most likely only 
a water form of this species. 
§ 23 New Fungi.—By E. C. Hows, Yonkers, N. Y.—No. ZV. 
1. Diderma albulum, n. sp.—Peridia crowded, whitish, oblong or 
obovate-oblong; inner peridium ash-gray; flocci white, lacunose, 
bearing brown spores, black in the mass; pedicels short, flat, arising 
from the membranous hypothallus, not hyaline; columella none. : 
On bark and wood of Ailanthus. The compact peridia are usually 
distinct ; and to the naked eye, of a lead-white color. 
2. Didymium simulans, x. sp.—Peridia gregarious or scattered, 
small, white, suabglobose or irregular, broadly umbilicate beneath; 
flocei white, bearing light brown spores, black in the mass— 
