127 



NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS ASCOBOLUS. 



By JAMES KEXNY. 

 In M Boudier's well-laboured and elegant monograpli* of the genus 

 Asco^Mus, or rather the genera which he collect, together in his family 

 AscoholeUh^ objects to associate with these genera any Peziz^eform fungus 

 which does not embody three characteristics-prominence of ascus, dehiscence 

 of the ascus by an operculum, and absence of nucleus and granulation in the 

 spores Many of the other HelveUacei have one or two of these characters, 

 but in the Ascobohi alone, according to M. Boudier's definition of the group, 

 are the whole three united. This definition consequently compels him to 

 exclude from his lists of species a minute cup-shaped fungus with aspect and 

 habit remarkably simUar to the prominent species of his genus i?w'«ro6n/., 

 and like them endowed with many-spored asci. He relegates this plant, 

 which he fuUy describes under the name of Peziza cimicularia, to the vast 

 genus Peziza. He concludes his description, however, by saying that he does 

 not doubt it %vill constitute a new genus, along with the plant described by 

 the MM. Crouan, when these Discomycetes shall have been more thoroughly 

 studied M. Crouan's fimgus is presumedly the same as M. Boudier's, or a 

 sister form, and, as well as a similar growth found by M. Leveill^, accords 

 with the verbal description given by M. Boudier of his Peziza cunicularia. 



I have foimd many specimens of this minute and interesting growth 

 within the last few years. My principal gatherings have been made in Here- 

 fordshire, but I have rarely failed to find it whenever or wherever I have 

 looked for it in a suitable locality. I have met with many varieties. Some 

 differ but little from a normal form, others present variations of sufficient 

 importance to constitute in my view specific distinctions, although all my 

 plants will bear out the characters given by M. Boudier with but trifling 

 alerations As these salient varieties now number at least six, the time has 

 perhaps arrived, foreshadowed by M. Boudier, when a new genus or a new 

 .section may be formed to contain them. 



Has, then, this small group of DiscomiKetes strong affinities either 

 to Pen'a or Ascoholus, in which case it would be well to make them 

 a section of one of these genera, or are they, as M. Broudier holds, so 

 distinct (from Ascoholus at least) as to require for their nomenclature 

 the proposal of a new genus? Mr. Cooke, it may be remarked, in his 

 " Handbook of British Fungi," follows only partiaUy M. Boudier's plan. 

 As 1 understand M. Boudier, he makes use of five generic names, and not 

 of five sections of the ge nus Ascobolus. Such a division of this genus in 

 1 Ann. des Sc. Nat. ser. 5, torn, x., p. 191. (See also Joura. Bot., 1&70, p. 40.) 



