90 



JOURNAL OF THE 



[April, 



half inches in length. These stems are reported as sometimes 

 growing much longer. 



I do not know the species of this specimen, there being no 

 head or spores to determine it. But there can be no reasonable 

 doubt that it belongs to the genus Torrubia, of which the older 

 genus Cordyceps is now held to be a synonym ; and it is, probably, 

 either Torrubia Sindairii or Torrubia Robertsii, both which 

 species are reported as found in New Zealand. 



Fig. I. — New-Zealand Caterpillar Fungus (original). 



The classification given in Cooke's " Hand-Book of the British 

 Fungi," places the genus Torrubia in the second division, or 

 Sporidiifera, — the fungi which have the spores in asci, or sacs, — 

 and in the sixth, or last family, the Ascomycetes, or genuine 

 sac-bearers. It is entered as the first genus of the Sphaeriacei, 

 of which Sphceria, or the simple sphere with sacs, is the type. 

 The fruit of the genus Torrubia is compound, consisting of a 



