260 



dropped in the fiftli vol. of E/icilish Flora, by Mr. Berkeley, as well as in his 

 Outlines of Fungologti. Nor is it to be found in Dr. Cooke's Handbook. I allude 

 to Nidularia dentata, of Witliering, described by him in the 3rd edition of An 

 Arrangement of British Plants (Vol. iv., p. 357, — 1796), as follows : — 



"Turban-shaped; pale buff; rather woolly ; segments or teeth at the edge, 

 broad, spear-shaped, regular. Membi-ane tough, whitish. Seeds, or capsules 

 reddish brown." 



"Several growing together on rotten twigs near the grate at Edgbaston 

 Pool." 



Tulasne in his important Monograph of the Order Nidulariem accepts this 

 species with the remark nan vidimus. It is true the description of Withering is 

 very inadequate, no mention being made of the presence or absence of a. funiculus 

 on the sporangium, nor the presence or absence of an epiphragmium, which are the 

 characters by which to distinguish Nidularia from the allied genera Cyathus and 

 Grucibulum, and probably it is on this ground the species has been dropped. 



The mode of dehiscence, however, is so remarkable, "segments or teeth at the 

 edge broad, spear-shaped, regular," that it will be well for Mycologists to keep 

 the characters before their minds while in search of these plants, for I know of few 

 more interesting results of our labours than the recognition and restoration to our 

 flora of a long overlooked or neglected species of the older botanists of our country. 



