no The Scottish Naturalist. 



not enclosed wholly in the bud scales, green, turning brown, the walls 

 very thin, and not separable into distinct layers. Neither form of gall 

 seems common near Aberdeen ; but they are not readily seen, and are 

 probably much more widely distributed and more common than they 

 appear to be. 



KEVISION OF SCOTCH SPHJEROPSIDEJE AND MELANCONIEiE. 

 (By Prof J. W. H. TRAIL, A.M., M.D., F.L.S.) 



i 



IN the following paper I shall endeavour to summarise what is 

 known with regard to the Scotch fungi usually referred to the 

 groups Sphaero2)sidecz and Melanconiece. These two groups are, 

 without doubt, very unsatisfactory, inasmuch as they are, in all 

 probability, mere stages in the development of higher forms, 

 mostly belonging to the Pyrenomycetes. That this is their true 

 nature may be held as proved with regard to several of the so- 

 called species ; and, although a genetic connection with certain of 

 the higher forms has too often been somewhat rashly assumed to 

 exist where fuller knowledge has not supported the assumption 

 there is good reason to believe that, one after the other, the 

 " species " of the two groups will be referred to the perfect fungi 

 to which they really belong. Our present knowledge is not 

 sufficient to permit of this being done except with a few ; and it is 

 advisable in the meantime to retain the names by which they are 

 known, as if they were distinct and good species. Enough is 

 known already, however, to warrant the conclusion that the 

 " genera " employed in the two groups are not wholly natural 

 assemblages, but include forms that belong to fungi of groups 

 that differ widely in the mature condition. 



In Mr. Stevenson's Mycologia Scotica, 104 "species" are 

 enumerated under the groups Sjy/taeropsidece and Melanconiece - y 

 but of these, three must be excluded, as referable to other groups ; 

 and one as not a true fungus. The limits of the two groups in 

 that work (founded on Cooke's Handbook of British Fungi) 

 are not quite the same as those now admitted by Mycologists. 

 The arrangement of "species" and "genera" has recently been sim- 

 plified, and characters defined more clearly. It can, indeed, scarcely 

 be said that the method of classification employed in Saccardo's 

 great work, the Sylloge Fungorum (Vol. III.) is more natural 



