TAPESIA. 297 



blackish; disc shining when young, usually rugulose at 

 maturity, externally, and the margin densely covered with 

 cylindrical, blunt, septate, somewhat thin-walled, smooth, 

 wavy, brown hyphae ; base fibri Hose, rooting ; often irre- 

 gular in form, contracted and the entire margin incurved 

 when dry, h-lh cm. across; hypothecium and excipuluni 

 formed of l^aline, densely interwoven hyphae, these change 

 at the cortex into the external, coloured hyphae ; asci cylin- 

 drical, apex obtuse, pedicel elongated, tapering downwards, 

 crooked, 8-spored; spores 1-seriate, hyaline, smooth, globose, 

 10-11 fx diameter; paraphyses septate, numerous, slender, 

 brownish at the thickened tips. 



Peziza nigrella, Pers., Syn. p. 648 ; Cooke, Mycogr. fig. 120. 



Pseudople r <tania nigrella, Sacc, Syll., viii. n. 665. 



On the ground in pine woods, rarely on rotten trunks. 



The marginal hairs are not differentiated as in those of 

 other species. 



Specimen in Renin's Ascom., n. 252, examined. 



TAPESIA. Pers. (fig. 39, marked 40 at bottom of 



plate, and 41, p. 156). 



Ascophore minute, thin, sessile, usually more or less nar- 

 rowed at the base, closed at first, then becoming almost or 

 quite plane, pilose or downy, seated on a more or less spread- 

 ing subiculum formed of branched, interwoven hyphae ; asci 

 narrowly clavate, apex somewhat narrowed, 8-spored ; spores 

 irregularly 2-seriate, smooth, hyaline, elongated and narrow, 

 continuous or septate; paraphyses slender. 



Tapesia, Persoon, Myc. Eur., i. p. 270 ; Phil., Brit. Disc, 

 p. 276; Sacc, Syll., viii. p. 371 (in part). 



The leading character of the present genus is the grega- 

 rious ascophores being seated on a more or less spreading, 

 colourless or coloured subiculum or thin, tomentose layer, 

 formed of interwoven hyphae. In Plectania the ascophores 

 are large, and the dense, strigose hyphae at the base do 

 not form an extended layer on the matrix. There is a 

 subiculum present in some species of Humaria, but here tho 

 ascophores are fleshy, and grow on the ground. 



Growing on wood, branches, and dead leaves. 



