328 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



in consequence are difficult to see ; the hairs are sometimes 

 tipped with a lump of lime, rarely crystalline, and sometimes 

 several hairs are more or less clotted together with lime. 



Peziza jplano-umbilicata, Grev., Flor. Ed., p. 420, respecting 

 which nothing is definitely known, may possibly belong to 

 the present species. 



Dasyscypha scintillans. Mass. 



Scattered, stipitate, globose and closed, then expanded, up 

 to ^ mm. broad and high ; thin, excipulum parenchymatous, 

 consisting of more or less square cells, with a tendency to 

 become arranged in lines near the margin, towards the 

 base, the cells become long and narrow, externally white, 

 pilose, the hairs longest and most numerous at the margin, 

 40-60 X 5-6 fx, apex blunt or very slightly incrassated, and 

 tipped with a large, globose cluster of sharp-pointed crystals 

 of oxalate of lin.e, the sharp points of the crystals numerous 

 and radiating in every direction, septate, often minutely 

 rough, wall at first thin, becoming thick and the lumen 

 almost obliterated; disc white or with a tinge of yellow; 

 stem very short ; asci cylindric-clavate, 8-spored, base rather 

 thick ; spores irregularly biseriate, cylindrical, 7-8 X 1 fx ; 

 paraphyses lanceolate, apex acute, about twine as long as the 

 asci, 5 fx broad at the widest part, hyaline. 



On dead oak leaves. 



Differs from D. ciliaris in the smaller spores and long, 

 broadly lanceolate paraphyses. D. rJiytismae ( = D. echinulata), 

 Rehm), has the external hairs much thinner, and the cells of 

 the excipulum are very long and narrow at the margin of 

 the cup. Finally D. ciliaris — with which D. echinulata, 

 Aud., is synonymous, »s proved by examination of specimens 

 named by Auerswald — has very much larger, fusiform 

 spore s. 



Auerswald in describing his species, Peziza echinulata, 

 Hedw., 1868, p. 136, gives the size of the spores as 15-18 X 

 2 fx. Phillips' description of this species is a translation of 

 Auerswald's original diagnosis quoted above, omitting the 

 spore measurements. 



When viewed under a low power of the microscope, the 

 entire fungus resembles a minute tassel of snow white silk, 

 each strand being tipped with a sparkling crystal. 



