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The sporidia in the Ascomycetes vary much in form, and some- 
times approach in appearance those of such truffles as Genea ; and 
there are sume species of Pezize which are essentially subterra- 
neous in their mode of growth, as Peziza sepulta, which has been 
found in Suffolk by Dr. Badham. The large genus Peziza 
embraces many of the most elegant fungi, from the little white 
and yellow P. calycina, which is very common on twigs of fir, to 
the gorgeous P. coccinea, which attracts the notice even of 
children, in our banks and hedges growing on sticks partly buried 
in the soil, and frequently set off by a surrounding of vivid, green 
moss. The bright orange P. aurantia, growing on the bare earth, 
and the elegant P. macropus, conspicuous by its long and slender 
stem, and the font-shaped P. acetabulum, which might form an 
appropriate pattern for the sculptor or silversmith, are well 
worthy of our attention. In Helvella the cup is inverted, so as 
to form a mitre-shaped or ovate pileus, with the margin free in 
some species, but in others more or less perfectly attached to the 
stem. When the cup and stem are perfectly soldered together 
we have the clavate species of the group. In Spathulea the stem 
is still visible on one side through the greater part of the pileus, 
and the consequence is that the hymenium assumes a-spathulate 
form, or that of a battledore. 
In Mitrula and Leotia we have distinct stems with a subglobose 
head more or less intimately connected with it. In other cases 
the stem is so confluent that we have forms, as in Geoglossum 
difforme, not distinguishable from those of the Hymenomycetes, 
except by their mode of fructification. ' Still another form or two 
are produced by the multiplication ‘of the hymenial surface 
through inequalities which were first shadowed out in Peziza 
venosa; and those in the common Morel which are increased to 
such an extent as to represent deep pits like those of a honeycomb. 
There is a lower series wheré the cup is obliterated by expansion, 
the attenuation of the margin and the flattening of the hymenial 
surface. Such forms are represented by Propolis and Cryptomyces. 
