268 The Irish Naturalist, [ Oct, 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



FUNGI. 



Nev\^ Irish Fungi. — Mr. Praeger has lately sent me the follow- 

 ing specimens: — Glyccim aqtiatica affected with the long linear sori of 

 Ustilago longissima, Sow., which ultimately cause the leaves to split up and 

 die, and the stem to wither away without flowering. The spores are very 

 small ; it would take sixty-four millions to cover a square inch ! The 

 affected grass was gathered at Bective, and near Enfield, Co. Meath. 

 Ustilago caricis^ Pers. (=6^. urceoloj-iim, Tul.), is a smut-fungus which converts 

 the fruit of sedges into a little mass like a grain of charcoal. Its spores 

 are four times as large as those of U. longissima. It was found on Carex 

 panicea near Enfield by Mr. Praeger, From the same locality comes 

 an inflorescence of Hole its sp., with a large-spored smut, Tillctia 

 Ramuejihofii, Fischer v. Waldheim, a species allied to the well-known 

 " bunt " of wheat, and like it smelling of herring-brine when rubbed. 

 All three fungi are new to Ireland, and the last-mentioned species has 

 not to my knowledge been hitherto published as British, but Dr. 

 Plowright, the British authority on the subject, informs me that he 

 found it on Holctis mollis near Doncaster, in 1891. 



Ed. J. McW:eENKY, Dublin. 



Fungi from Brittas Bay Excursion, D.N.F.C.— The follow- 

 ing were the rarest of the few agarics collected : — Clitopihis carncoalbus^ 

 Wither; Entoloma jubatitm, Fr. ; Stropliaria iminctus^ Fr, ; Inocybe rimosa^ 

 Bull. (This common agaric is mentioned on account of the peculiar 

 locality where it was found, viz., amongst the sand-hills on the seashore ; 

 the pileus was in many cases quite coated with sand). Of Ureduid and 

 Ustilaginci one species was found (by Mr. Halbert) which I have not 

 hitherto met with, though I have often sought for it, Puccinia hydrocotyks, 

 lyk., forming pustules chiefly on the upper side of leaves of the Marsh 

 Pennywort. Mr. M'Ardle found Pucctnia caltluc, lyk., a decidedly rare 

 species, within afewyards ofMr.Halbert's capture, on the marshy land west 

 of the coast-road to Arklow and north of the cross-road at Brittas Bay. 

 The other Fungi taken comprised Erinella apala, Mass., an exceedingly 

 beautiful tiny PeziM growing on dead culms of rush. It is covered with 

 long hairs, whitish round the margin, fawn-coloured elsewhere, and its 

 spores, resembling compact bundles of slender rods (4o/iX2)u), form an 

 interesting high-power object. Cyphella ■villosa, Karst., a minute woolly 

 Species, closely resembling a Pcziza, was also found. It covered a con- 

 siderable area of a dead herbaceous stem. This is the first occasion on 

 which I have found this species. My measurements of the spores come 

 out a little smaller (9x7) than those given in Massee, but the agreement 

 is otherwise perfect. 



E. J. McW^KNijY, Dublin. 



