40 BRITISH DISCOMYCETES. 



Genus X. — Rhizina. Fries. 



Sessile, effused like a crust, afterwards bullato-inflated, 

 determinate, hymenium occupying the upper surface ; 

 under side furnished with root-like fibrils ; flesh firm, 

 persistent ; asci cylindrical ; sporidia 8, large. (Plate II. 

 fig. 10.) 



On the earth or on wood. 



Large (from 1 to 3 inches), persistent. 



Name — pi£a, a root ; from the root-like fibrils which 

 clothe more or less of the under surface, attaching it to 

 the ground. 



1. Rhizina undulata. Fries. 



Effused, undulate, bay-brown ; margin inflexed, 

 flocculose beneath, and pallid ; asci cylindrical ; sporidia 

 8, fusiform, sub-acute, 2-guttulate, at length pseudo- 

 septate, 30 — 35 X 9/x ; paraphyses filiform, enlarged and 

 brown at the apices, which adhere firmly together. 

 (Plate II. fig. 10.) 



Rhizina undulata — Fries, " Sys. Myco.," ii. p. 33 ; 

 Sch8eff.,t. 153; Pers., " Myco. Eur.," p. 216; Tub, "Hyp.," 

 t. 21, f 16; Curr., "Linn. Trans.," xxiv. p. 493, t. 51, 

 f. 7-9 ; Fckl., "Symb. Myco.," p. 332; Cooke, "Handbk.," 

 No. 1963 ; Gill, " Champ.," p. 28, c. i. ; Pat., p. 209, f. 479. 



Exs.— Rabh., " Fung. Eur.," Nos. 39 and 725 ; Phil., 

 "Elv. Brit.," No. 56; Cooke, "Fung. Brit.," ser. ii. No. 

 400; Winter, "Fungi Eur.," 2750; Rehm., "Asco.," 701. 



On gravelly and sandy soil that has recently been 

 exposed to fire. 



Varying in size from J an inch to 3 inches broad. 

 At first orbicular, plane, with a whitish margin ; when 

 mature convex, undulate, and irregular in outline. The 

 rhizinaB are coarse fibres occupying the greater part of 

 the under surface, but absent for a certain distance 

 from the margin, which is tomentose and rufous ; when 

 dry the hymenium becomes black and hard. The fusi- 

 form sporidia have a thick epispore, especially at the 

 extremities, and are faintly coloured. The paraphyses 



