Prof. G. de Notaris on the Tribe Sphseriaceae. 225 



portant characters^ and there are always too many who fly from 

 minute and conscientious analysis, I would advise them to return 

 to the golden age in which no generic difference was recognised 

 between Li/coperdon, Lycogala and Sphceria. 



In the meantime, to confirm by some examples tlie reason- 

 ableness of the innovations which I am meditating, I subjoin the 

 descriptions of some genera belonging to the Aplosphceria. 



I. Ventukia. 



Perithecia Crustacea, fragilia, globoso-depressa, poro rotundo amplo 

 pertusa, circa ostiolum setulis rigidis longiusculis hispida, fundo 

 ascigera. Asci fixi erecti oblongi ellipticive, in basim breviter 

 abrupteque tenuati, fere pedicellati octospori. Paraphyses nullse. 

 Sporidia constricto-didyma bilocularia, articulis subaequalibus, epi- 

 sporio pertenui endosporio vix translucido papyraceo fuscescente. 



I dedicate this genus, of which I know two species, to the en- 

 lightened Sig. Antonio Venturini of Brescia, an excellent myco- 

 logist. 



1. Venturia RoscB : sporidiorum fusco-castaneorum loculis inaequa- 

 libus obtusis, inferiore minore. 



It grows on the dead boughs of the Rosa alpina at Mt. Cenis. 



It appears to have a great analogy with the Sphceria strigosa 

 of Albertini and Schweinitz (Conspect. Fung. p. 33. n. 3. tab. 5. 

 fig. 7. a^bjc) ; nevertheless it differs from it in not being entirely 

 invested with bristles, in the depresso-globose perithecia, instead 

 of globose or ovate, and still more by their rather ample and not 

 papillated ostiolum. 



2. Ventvria Dianthi : sporidiorum atro-fuscorum loculis subaequalibus 

 ovate- subacutis. 



On the dried stalks of the Dianthus carthtisianorum, or within 

 their cavity. 



The two species agree together admirably in the manner of 

 their development, bursting through the epidermis, which at first 

 covers them, in the form of the ostiolum, which is surrounded by 

 rigid bristles, in the structure of the perithecium and the nucleus, 

 in the absence of paraphyses, in the asci, which are strongly at- 

 tenuated at the base, in the bilocular brown sporidia, veiled by 

 an episporium, which is almost confluent with the papyraceous 

 endosporium, and are easily distinguished by the shape of the 

 sporidia without having recourse to the dimensions of the peri- 

 thecia and the matrix, from which, if we were to take the di- 

 stinctive characters, the one, V. Rosce, would belong to the Villosa; 

 the other, V. Dianthi, to the Caulicola. 



