78 Rarer Woodland Plants of Scotland. [Sess. 



II. — The Scarlet Cup-Fungus {Lachnea coccinea, Jacq.). 



This beautiful fungus — the Peziza coccinea of the older 

 text-books — is described by Mr Phillips, in his ' Manual of 

 the British Discomycetes/ as " the most handsome species in 

 our flora," and most people will probably concur in his opinion. 

 In the depth of winter, when the dreary woods display few 

 brightly coloured objects to attract the eye of the passer-by, 

 its brilliant cups are conspicuous, whether seen growing on 

 the bare ground or in the midst of a setting of verdant moss. 

 It occurs on rotten branches of hazel, and may be found on 

 the ground, in moist woods and coppices, during the late 

 autumn, winter, and early spring. It belongs to the large 

 group known as the Discomycetes, in which the spores are 

 produced in asci or bags, which are embedded in the tissue of 

 the hymenium. In this species, as in the vast majority of 

 the others, each ascus contains eight spores. A vertical 

 section through the hymenium, showing the asci and spores, 

 forms a very interesting object for microscopic examination. 



y.— NOTES ON THE BARER WOODLAND PLANTS 

 OF SCOTLAND. 



By Mr DAVID SYDNEY FISH. 



{Read Jan. 27, 1904.) 



Beneath pine-forests there usually exists a carpet of dwarf, 

 often creeping, plants. The forests of Scots pine forming the 

 native coniferous forest are not only interesting by themselves, 

 but in connection with the various plant carpets that they 

 more or less shelter. Some of these pine-forest carpets are in 

 Britain singularly characteristic of its northern counties. In 

 the case of one of our rarest plants, Moneses, no record exists 

 of its being found so far south as Edinburgh : if the other 

 genera to be specially mentioned presently are scarce in Scot- 



