Rev. M. J. Berkeley on British Fungi. 203 



which by mutual consent the name of gracilis was substituted. 

 Its real place 13 rather doubtful, as in some measure it con- 

 nects Typhula with Isaria. The structure was not however 

 precisely the same in all the individuals, for though in some 

 of them the fruit-bearing cells of the hymenium were inter- 

 spersed with delicate bristles, which were surmounted by a 

 single spore, as in Isaria intricata and citrina, this is not con- 

 stant, and I am therefore inclined to think that it arises from 

 some of the cells being elongated. Pallid, one line or a little 

 more high, simple or forked ; rugged with the fruit-bearing 

 cells, which are frosted with the spores, and interspersed 

 sometimes with short bristles, of which some of the upper ones 

 support a small spore ; tips often acuminate and then nearly 

 barren. Stem short, smooth, or bristly. Spores elliptic, 

 having a sparkling appearance under a lens. 



Plate VII. fig. 1. a, Typhula] gracilis, nat. size ; b, ditto magnified. 



85. Pistillaria culmigena, Mont, and Fr., Ann. de Sc. Nat. 

 n. s. vol. v. p. 337. t. 12. fig. 2. Berk. Brit. Fung. Fasc. 3. 

 n. 152. Fotheringhay, Deene, Norths, on sheaths of wheat 

 straw, Jan. 1837* 



*86. Helvetia elastica, Bull., t. 242. It has long been re- 

 marked that some states of this plant resemble so closely Pe- 

 ziza macropus, as to make it matter of great difficulty whether 

 or no to consider it as a distinct species. Fries dismisses the 

 question with the remark, " video saepe meliora proboq. — sed 

 quis omnes praesumtas opiniones pessundare audet?" His 

 views are confirmed by the circumstance, which appears not 

 to have been observed heretofore, that the sporidia are pre- 

 cisely the same, as I have ascertained both in the white and 

 dusky forms. I the rather call attention to the fact, as Dr. 

 GrevihVs analysis of H. crispa and lacunosa might lead to a 

 contrary notion. He has by some mischance represented 

 only the sporidiola in those species and not the elliptic spo- 

 ridia. It is possible that in his specimens they may have 

 been absorbed, a circumstance by no means uncommon in 

 Fungi, a fact to which I have been led, as to many others of 

 great importance, by M. Morren's paper on the Closteries, a 



