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THE BEITISH SPECIES OF NIDULARTA. 

 By Mr. Wm. Phillips, F.L.S., &c. 



The genus Nidularia, Fr., is represented in this country by a single species, 

 Nidularia pisiforinis, Tul., described and figured by the late Mr. Fredrick Currey 

 in a Paper read before the Linnean Society, June 18th, 18(53, which appeared in 

 Vol. xxiv. of the Transactions of that Society. The specimen was found at St. 

 George's Hill, Weybridge. I will reproduce the whole of Currey's description, 

 which is very complete, and serves to fix satisfactorily the character of the s[)ecieB. 



"Peridium subrotund, slightly flattened, varying in different specimens from 

 one-twelfth to one-fourth of an inch across, brown or brownish-white, woolly, 

 tuberculate when ripe, from the pressure outwards of the sporangia ; indehiscent, 

 opening by irregular fissures ; sporangia enveloped in jelly, subrotund or disc- 

 shaped, their outline forming a broad ellipse (almost a circle) with a major axis 

 of about one-twentieth of an inch, shining, of a rich dark brown colour, some- 

 times hollowed inwards on one side, but not umbilicate, and showing no trace of 

 any elastic cord, such as exists in Cimthus. Sporidia colourless, slightly varying 

 in shape, globose, pear-shaped or elliptical, produced on sterigmata, 0'0002 to 

 O'OOOS inch across." 



"On pine-chips, St. George's Hill, Wey bridge, May and October, 1862." 



" I was at first inclined to consider this a new species ; but after discussing 

 it with Mr. Berkeley, we came to the conclusion that it could not be separated 

 from Nidularia pisiforinis, Tul. N. pisiformis is described as gregarious, and is 

 said to have grown on clayey ground mixed with wood shavings. Tulasne does 

 not figure JV. pisiformis, not having seen it, but only adopts Usteri's account, 

 describes and figures it in his Annalen der Botanik (Vol. i., tab. 1, fig. 1), under the 

 name of Granidaria pisiforinis. Usteri's description does not very well accord 

 with his figure, but the latter is so rough and imperfect as to be hardly intelligible. 

 All the specimens of the plant above-described were solitary, and they grew only 

 on fir-chips and fir-leaves, not on the ground. When the sporangia and the 

 enveloping jelly are dispersed, a hollow skinny cup remains attached to the place 

 of growth. The number of the sterigmata appears to vary from one to four. 

 Upon the basidium, which is figured, I could only make out two. This species 

 does not appear to have been noticed since Usteri's publication of it, now a great 

 many years ago." 



Accompanying this full and satisfactory description are figures of the species, 

 showing a single individual the natural size, the same magnified, and one basidium 

 having two spicules bearing spores at their apices. 



In September last, the Rev. Dr. Keith, of Forres, N.B., was good enough to 

 Bend me a specimen of Nidularia, which he fouml growing on a wet decayed stick 

 of pine-wood, and which presented such diflferences from the above as led me to 

 suspect that it was new to our Flora. 



