StacJiijUdium.] FUNGT. 341 



124. Stachylidium. Lk. Stachylidiura. 



Sporidia (at first included in a spore) simple, collected upon 

 proper short discrete lateral branchlets. — Name, crayjjg^ a spike, 

 and nbocy resemblance. 



1. S, bicolor, Lk. (two- coloured Stachylidium) ; fertile flocci 

 simple grey putting forth quaternate blunt sporiferous branchlets 

 at the upper joints. Lk. Sp.l. p. 78. Nees, Syst./. 56. Fr. 

 Syst. Myc. v. 3. /?. 391. — Dematixim. verticillatum, Hoffm. Germ. 

 2.L 13./. 1. 



On stalks of herbaceous plants laid in heaps in gardens. Apethorpe, 

 Norths. Margate, &c. llev. M. J. Berhelci/. — Investing the plant 

 on which it grows with a greyish subolivaceous down, resembling some- 

 what Botrytis vidgaris. Filaments simple, but furnished above with 

 wiiorls of quaternate, obtuse branchlets, each bearing a single, globose 

 spore, filled with oblong-elliptic sporidia. Sometimes the branchlets 

 are acute, which appears to arise from the spore being abortive and 

 forming a second depauperated articulation. I have rarely seen tb.e 

 plant so perfect as described above; few objects are more elegant. 



2. S. terrestre, Lk. {xchite Stachylidium) ; fertile flocci 

 branched white, above putting forth quaternate obtuse spori- 

 ferous branchlets. Lk. Sp. 1. p. 78. Grev. FL Ed. p. 466. 

 Sc. Crypt. FL t. 257. Fr. Syst. Myc. v. 3. p. S9l.— Stachy- 

 lidium candidum, Grev. in JVern. Tr. p. 72. t. b. f. 6. 



On rotten sticks. About Edinburgh. Dr. Greville. Apethorpe, 

 Korths. liev. M. J. Berkeley. — Easily distinguishable even to the 

 naked eye by a peculiar scattered dot-like mode of growth. JMt/ctUum 

 dense, branched, intricate. Sporidia globose. It does not appear 

 that they have been actually observed to be contained in a spore. 



3. *S'. diffusum, Fr. (^diffuse Stachylidium) ; fertile flocci 

 branched white, fertile branchlets scattered bearing quaternate 

 spores, sporidia at length collected at their apices in globular 

 masses. Fr. Syst. Myc. v. 3. p. 31)2. — Botn/tis diffusa, Alb. c^ 

 Schw. p. 362. Grev. Fl. Ed. p. 468. Sc. Crypt.^Fl. t. 126../: 

 2. Wern. Tr. I. c. f. 7. — Botryosporium diffvsum, Cor da, I. 

 c. t. 5. 



On stems of decaying herbaceous plants, especially jiotatocs. About 

 Edinburgh. JJr. iinville. (.'onnnon in Nortlis. Rev. M. J. BerJuhy. 

 — I'orming loose tufts, .'J — 4 lines high. Albcrtiui and Schweinitz, as 

 also Fries, have observed the branchlets at first to bear (luaternate sports. 

 They are usually crowned with globular masses of globose or sometimes 

 cllij)tic sporidia. In this and the foregoing genus the true aflinity is 

 perhaps with the Mucorini ; but in Aspergillus, scarcely suflicient ob- 

 servations have been recorded as to the real primary structure, antl in 

 tiie [)resent genus individuals arc so seldom found in the sporiferous 

 state, that I preler, with Erics, retaining them in their present .situation; 

 especially as there is reason to believe that some species of Botrt/(ts 

 have the sporidia at first included. 



