258 Rev. M. J. Berkeley on British Fungi. 



mature examination will show that it belongs to the Peri- 

 sporiacece, being allied on the one hand to Antennaria and on 

 the other to Chcetomium, and that its relation to Sphceria is, 

 if I mistake not, merely one of analogy. With Chcetomium it 

 agrees in most points, but the sporidia are not irregularly dis- 

 tributed in the gelatinous contents of the peridium, but are 

 contained in distinct though highly transparent asci. The 

 hairs are of a very different structure from those in Chceto- 

 mium elatum, where they are curiously scabrous with minute 

 rough points arranged in transverse lines, and nearly opake; 

 in the present plant perfectly even and far more pellucid, 

 though dark. A more important circumstance, perhaps, is 

 the freeness of the peridia, in which point some approach is 

 made in the genus Antennaria, which again presents a mo- 

 niliform arrangement of the sporidia. The analysis given of 

 Antennaria cellaris by Dr. Greville is exceedingly correct, and 

 it will be seen that there is not the slightest trace of asci. 

 Fries, however, whose acute observation nothing escapes, 

 directs our attention to the apparently moniliform arrange- 

 ment of the sporidia in Sphceria Peziza, which torulous ap- 

 pearance arises from the sporidia bulging out in consequence 

 of the slenderness of the asci ; and to this hint I have to ac- 

 knowledge the being able to refer to its proper place the pre- 

 sent production, which at first somewhat puzzled me. In the 

 instance before us the asci are distinctly developed, though 

 difficult to see, in consequence of their great transparency j 

 but attentive observation will show them as distinct as repre- 

 sented in the figure. Indeed, except in old individuals, they 

 are always to be seen with a careful adjustment. It is scarcely 

 needful to add, that in the species of Sphceria of the division 

 Villosce the sporidia are always more or less distinctly septate, 

 and altogether very different from those of the plant before us. 

 The branching of the hairs which invest the peridia is very 

 curious, and very much resembles that of the vine as ex- 

 plained by Turpin (See Ann. des Sc. Nat. n. s. 1. p. 225). 



At first appearing under the form of a minute branched 

 Sporotrichum, interspersed with globose brownish conidia. 

 As it advances in growth globose black peridia become visible 

 among the flocci, clothed with and supported by alternately 



