Massee. — The Fungus Flora of Neto Zealand. 37 



Cyphella filicicola. Berk, and Curt., Grev., ii, p. 5 (1873) ; Sacc, 



Svll. vi, no. 7898. 



Scattered, sessile bnt attached by a narrowed base, more or 

 less pendulous, obliquely funnel-shaped, often irregular in form, 

 umber or brownish, externally minutely downy under a lens, 

 2-3 mm. long. 



On dead fern-stems. New Zealand. Carolina, United States, 



Shaped like the bowl of a smoking-pipe, and attached by a 

 very short stem, or, rather, the narrowed base of the head of 

 the pipe, the cavity pointing downwards. 



Cyphella alho-violascens, Karst., Fung. Fenn. Exs., no. 715 ; 

 Sacc, Syll. vi, no. 7817 ; Austr. Fung., p. 196. 



Gregarious, sessile, 1-3 mm. diameter, globose and closed 

 when young, then hemispherical, externally snow-white and 

 densely downy ; hymenium even, more or less tinged with 

 violet ; spores colourless, elliptical, usually slightlv inaequi- 

 lateral 12-15 x 8-9 /^.. 



On wood, bark, twigs, &c. New Zealand. Australia, Cape 

 of Good Hope, Europe, South America, United States. 



Resembling a miniite downy Peziza, for which it was mistaken 

 by early authors. Often proliferous ; hymenium and margin 

 becoming blackish. 



Clavarie^. 



An entire absence of differentiation into a sterile (pileus) 

 and fertile (hymenium) surface respectively, and the even hy- 

 menium, are the characteristic features of the present group. 



In the simpler forms the hymenophore is club-shaped, every 

 portion of the club being fertile or covered "with the hymenium. 

 In other species the club becomes more or less divided, whereas 

 in numerous species the fertile portion is broken up into nume- 

 rous branches, the whole resembling a much-branched tree or 

 coral in miniature. 



The species are usually small, often brightly coloured, and 

 with few exceptions grow on the ground. All the species are 

 edible. Some of the minute species spring from sclerotia, and 

 amongst these are parasites on various cultivated plants ; but 

 the injury caused by members of the Clavariece is practically a 

 negligible quantity. 



Analysis of the Genera. 



59. Clavakia. Soft and fleshy, wimple or much branched, branches 



terete, axils iisiially rounded. 

 <)0. Pistillaria. Minute, club-shaj)ed, simple, rigid and horny when dry. 



