306 BRITISH DISCOMYCETES. 



About 100 to 200/z broad. 



Name Minutus, minute ; very minute. 



Near Birmingham! (Mr. W. B. Grove). 



4. Ascophanus argenteus. (Curr.) 



Gregarious, exceedingly minute, barely visible to the 

 naked eye, subpyriform, of a silvery-white colour, 

 oblong-ovate, narrowed to a point at the base ; sporidia 

 8, elliptic, colourless, 12 x 7'6/ij paraphyses clavate at 

 the apices. 



Ascobolus argenteus Curr.; Cooke, "Jour. Bot.," 

 May, 1864, f . 6 ; B. and Br, "Ann. Nat. Hist.," No. 1088, 

 1. 17, f. 32; Cooke, "Handbk.," No. 2210; Gill, "Champ.," 

 p. 142. Ascophanus argenteus Boud, " Ann. Sc. Nat." 

 (1869), vol. 10, t. 11, f. 32 ; " Ascob.," p. 55. 



On cow-dung. 



Scarcely visible to the naked eye. 



Name Argentum, silver; of silvery appearance. 



Eltham (Mr. F. Currey) 



5. Ascophanus lacteus. (Cooke and Phil.) 



Scattered, at first obconical, then expanded, slightly 

 concave, at length convex, milk-white, glabrous; asci 

 clavate ; sporidia 8, generally biseriate, elliptic, hyaline, 

 smooth, 10 X 5ju; paraphyses filiform. 



Ascobolus {Ascophanus) lacteus Cooke and Phil, in 

 " Grevillea," v. p. 119. 



Exs. Cooke, " Fung. Brit./' ed. ii. 560. 



On cow- dung. 



Cups J to f of a line broad. In external appearance 

 it certainly resembles an Helotium, but here the resem- 

 blance ceases. In size as well as sporidia it differs from 

 the pale forms of Ascoph. ochraceus, and from Ascoph. 

 argenteus in the slightly smaller sporidia, the narrower 

 asci, and the filiform paraphyses. 



Name Lac, milk ; milk-white. 



Shrewsbury ! 



