1852.] Linnean Society. 199 



Mr. Berkeley describes the egg as globose, f of an inch in dia- 

 meter, the volva bursting in two or three lobes applied to the stem ; 

 the stem l|-2 inches high, 4-5 lines thick, bright red, coarsely cri- 

 brose, below attenuated, above confluent with the receptacle, which 

 is sometimes broadly clavate, sometimes conical, but always more or 

 less obtuse, pervious at the apex, sometimes half as long as the stem ; 

 the mass of spores dark olive, soon washed off ; the odour heavy 

 and nauseous, but only perceptible when the hymenium is brought 

 near to the nose. 



The second subject of Mr. Berkeley's paper relates to a group of 

 Fungi of which Sphcerocarptis capsuUfer, Bulliard, is the type, and 

 which appear to have been for the most part neglected by authors, 

 the accounts of them by French botanists (by whom alone they have 

 been noticed) being more or less complete compilations from Bulliard. 

 Externally the fungi in question, with one exception, have the ap- 

 pearance of species of the genus Physarum, the peridium being single 

 and smooth, and the spores mixed with flocci ; the latter are broad 

 and lamellseform in parts, but vary greatly in breadth, and intermixed 

 with spores as in olYiex My xogasteres, but these spores grow in little 

 aciniform masses instead of being single as in other allied Fungi, 

 with the exception oiEnerthema, Reticularia and Ptychogaster, in the 

 former of which (figured by Mr. Bowman in the ' Linnean Transac- 

 tions ') as well as in the present instance, Mr. Berkeley has ascer- 

 tained that they are produced within a vesicle, as in Hymenogaster 

 vulgaris, Tul., thus confirming at once Mr. Bowman's curious 

 genus, and M. Tulasne's observation of a similar anomaly in a dif- 

 ferent group of fungi ; while in the two other genera they form little 

 radiating fascicles. Mr. Berkeley states that the credit of calling 

 attention to BuUiard's figure, and ascertaining the structure, is en- 

 tirely due to Dr. Badham, and he therefore dedicates the genus to 

 him, in the hope that its characters are so well founded as to ensure 

 permanence. 



Badhamia, Berkeley. 



Peridium simplex, extus nudum, v. rarissime subtomentosum, apice 

 demutn lacerato-apertum ; flocci laxe reticulati, parietibus affixi, hie 

 illic expansi in laminam saepe triangularem peridio similem ; sporce glo- 

 bose, V. subangulares, primum sacco communi inclus^, demum liberatae, 

 conglobato-adnatse. — Fungi minores, fragilissimi, muscos v. corticem 

 colentes, Physarum utplurimthn referentes. 



1. B. hyalina=zFhysarum hyalinuni, Aitci. 



2. B. utricularis=:Fhy sarum utriculare, Attcf. 



