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waxy nature, very similar to the soft flesh of many of the Agarics, and never 

 hard, corky, or brittle, as in most of the Sphaeriacei. It is true that some genera 

 of the Sphaeriaceous group, such as Cordyccps and Hi/pocrca, have a similar fleshy 

 substance, or stroma, but in these we recognise another point of difference, in the 

 asci being enclosed within definite perithecia, which are embedded in the stroma, 

 whereas in the Discomycetes there are no perithecia, the hymenium being always 

 continuous over the fructifying surface. The form of the Discomycetes is doubtless 

 variable, but this follows two types, the one pileate, the other cupulate, the one 

 club-shaped, the other cup-shaped, with their various modifications. In the latter 

 the hymenium lines the concavity of the cup, in the former it is spread over the 

 outer upper surface, being deficient in the stem. There is no exception to this 

 general rule, so that it is never difficult to indicate the position and limits of the 

 hymenium. They are, therefore, fleshy ascomycetous fungi, with the hymenium 

 or fructifying surface confined to a definite area, but never enclosed in perithecia. 



As in all other branches of natural history we encoimter aberrant forms, 

 which possess great interest because they depart from the general type, so here, 

 amongst the Discomycetes, I have to describe an aberrant form, which possesses a 

 general interest to the mycologist as a new arrangement or inversion of parts or 

 organs. 



In 1874 and 1875, Dr. Berggren, of Lund, visited and collected in New 

 Zealand, and amongst others, he obtained a Large and interesting collection of 

 fungi, and made about one hundred rough water-colour sketches. These fungi 

 have passed into my hands for determination, and among them the subject of this 

 communication, together with two " sketches from the life." 



The fungus, which I purpose calling Bkrggrenia, is ovate, pyriform, some- 

 what clavate, about one inch in height, and nearly as much in width, but com- 

 pressed laterally to one-fourth of that thickness in one direction. It is described 

 as looking very much like a TremeUa, being a little plicate or ribbed below and 

 inflated, so that the centre is hollow, and though attenuated a little at the base 

 there is no distinct stem. The base is watery white, the upper half a bright 

 reddish orange. 



For some time I was puzzled with this, which at first I regarded as a 

 TremeUa, or Guepinia, or it might be an ally of Spathularia ; softened and exam- 

 ined under the microscope I could find no external trace of hymenium, nothing but 

 a tough cellular tissue of large and uniform cells, until at length almost in despair, 

 I cut open one of the specimens, and found the inner walls softer, rugose, and so 

 different in texture that at once, more out of curiosity as to the character of the 

 cells, than hope to find the hymenium, I examined a portion of the inner wall, and 

 found it to consist entirely of an effused hymeniiun of large, closely-packed, cylin- 

 drical asci, each containing its eight elliptical sporidia, but without jsaraphyses. 

 In fact here is an inflated fleshy sac, with the hymenium enclosed and covering the 

 whole of the inner surface. It is a Spathularia turned inside out, and is of far 

 more importance to us than a mere new species or a new genus could be, present- 



