86 



NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN 



each ascus could not be made out but there are more than 64. 

 The paraphyses if present were indistinct. 



ASCOBOLUS Pers., Obs. Myc., 1: 33. 1796. 



Receptacle fleshy-gelatinous, at first closed, globose, later more 

 or less cup-shaped or plane, externally smooth, furfuraceous or 

 clothed with soft hairs; asci cylindrical or clavate, operculate, 

 protruding at maturity, spores elliptical, smooth reticulate or 

 verrucose, at first hyaline then purple and at last brown ; para- 

 physes scarcely enlarged upwards; plants generally found on 

 dung but often occuring on decaying plant materials ; hymenium 

 dotted with the end of the asci containing dark colored spores. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Plants very minute about 1 mm. or less in diameter, 



smooth A - glaber. 



Plants externally furfuraceous or pilose. 



Plants minute slightly hairy, spores very large 



t 50^ A. immersus. 



Plants furfuraceous, spores not to exceed 30/*. 

 Spores rough, verrucose or reticulate. 



Spores verrucose, plants on burnt ground. . A. carbonarhts. 

 Spores delicately reticulate. 



Plants light colored, yellowish-green, on 



c | un g A. stercorarius. 



Plants dark colored, greenish to brown- 

 ish, on soil A. viridis. 



Spores smooth, plants on horse-dung. . . . A. leveillei. 



*Ascobolus glaber Pers., Obs. Myc. 1 : 3-4. 1796. 



Plate 31, f. ii. 



The plants of this species which are from .5 to 1 mm. in diame- 

 ter were found growing sparingly on the material described 

 above. When growing they appear as small globose, shining 

 dots but removed from the substratum they are found to be pyri- 

 form, the lower part of the plant being immersed. The spores 

 of this species are similar to those of Ascobolus stercorarius 

 (Bull.) Schroet. but are easily distinguished by the surface 

 markings. The spores of the former are marked by a few 

 branching reticulations which are for the most part longitudinal 



