Melastiza 103 



13. MELASTIZA Boud. Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 1 : 106. 1885. 



Apothecia cup-shaped or scutellate, with the hymenium 

 bright-colored, externally clothed with flexuous or bristle-like 

 hairs; asci 8-spored; spores hyaline, at first smooth, at maturity 

 sculptured ; spore-sculpturing assuming the form of reticulations; 

 paraphyses filiform to clavate. 



Type species, Peziza miniata Fuckel. 



Hairs inconspicuous, closely adpressed to the sides of 



the apothecium. 1- M. Charteri. 



Hairs conspicuous, extending far beyond the margin of 

 the apothecium. 

 Plants tropical; spores 30-35 M long. 2. M.asperrima. 



Plants temperate; spores 25-30 ^ long. 3. M. pennsylvanica. 



1. Melastiza Charteri (\V. G. Smith) Boud. Hist. Class. Discom. 

 Eu. 64. 1907. (Plate 45, fig. 17.) 



Peziza Charteri W. G. Smith, Card. Chron. 1872: 9. 1872. 

 Htimaria miniata Fuckel, Symb. Myc. Nacht. 3: 32. 1875. 

 Peziza miniata Cooke, Mycographia 71. 1876. Not Peziza miniata Batsch. 



1786. 

 Humaria Charteri Rehm, Ascom. 455. 1878. 

 Lachnea miniata Gill. Champ. Fr. Discom. 210. 1886. 

 Scutellinia miniata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 869. 1891. 

 Melastiza miniata Boud. Ic. Myc. exp. pl. 1: 16. 1905. 



Apothecia scattered, gregarious, or crowded, expanding and 

 becoming nearly plane or more rarely cup-shaped, regular in 

 outline when young, the margin often becoming waxy or irregu- 

 larly convolute with age or from mutual pressure, reaching a 

 diameter of 1.5 cm., though often smaller, externally clothed 

 with clumps of imperfectly developed hairs; hymenium concave 

 or nearly plane, bright-red or almost scarlet; the excipular cells 

 roundish or angular, the cell walls pale-brown; hairs usually 

 clinging together in fascicles, flexuous, thin-walled, with blunt 

 ends, 3-4-septate, pale-brown, reaching a length of 150-175 /x 

 and a diameter of 1(J-12 m; asci cylindric or subcylindric, tapering 

 gradually below, reaching a length of 300 m and a diameter of 

 12-14 m; spores 1-seriate, parallel with the ascus or more rarely 

 diagonally disposed, ellipsoid, hyaline, usually containing two 

 oil-drops, finally becoming sculptured, 10-13 X 17-20 m; spore- 

 sculpturing assuming the form of reticulations, the reticulations 

 often indistinct and broken in young specimens, and often givmg 

 rise to an apiculus at either end; paraphyses enlarged above, 



where they reach a diameter of 6-8 ju. 

 9 



