Durand : Classification of the Fleshy Pezizineae 465 



limits as the family Ascobolaceae of later authors. The genus 



Ht 



which were also typical species of the same genus as defined by 

 Saccardo.* 



The two genera Ascobohts and Helotiwn together contained 

 only eight well defined species. All the other cup-shaped Dis- 

 comycetes, of which he enumerated 151 species, Persoon rele- 

 gated to the genus Peziza. This genus was defined as follows : 

 " Receptacle hemispherical, concave, tumid, bearing fruit in a 

 smooth disc. (Thecae sack-like, invisible to the naked eye, when 

 mature with eight sporidia which are expelled like smoke)." 

 Peziza, as thus defined, was broken up by the author into seven 

 lettered sections, which were based on the consistency of the cup, 

 together with its external characters. Of these seven sections only 

 the first four need concern us, as being included within the limits 

 of this paper. 



The section A, Tremelloideae, included those forms in which the 

 consistency of the cup is more or less tremelloid. Its limits were 

 in general very nearly those of the family Bulgarieae of Saccardo. 

 Section B comprehended all of the large, fleshy Pezizineae which 

 are externally smooth or subfarinaceous. Section C was made 

 up of those which are externally strigose, pilose, or pubescent, 

 whether they be fleshy or waxy, while Section D included those 

 which are fleshy-waxy and smooth. 



Persoon's arrangement was to a certain degree a natural one, 

 although founded upon the gross characters of the plants. I have 

 gone thus far into the details of the system because it formed the 

 basis of the Friesian system of classification which remained in 

 almost universal use for seventy years. 



The next step in the systematic arrangement of the Discomy- 

 cetes was taken by Fries f in 1822. In his Systema Mycologicum 

 there was established an order Elvellaceae, made up of two sub- 

 orders Mitrati and Cupulati. The suborder Mitrati was formed 

 to include the genera with mitrate or clavate apothecia, while the 

 cup-shaped ones made up the Cupulati. The latter group was 

 divided into three families (1) Pezizeae, (2) Dermeae, and (3) Het- 

 eroclitae. The family Pezizeae (omitting the genus Patdlarid) 



♦Saccardo (2), p. 210. t Fries (0> 2: 35- 



