CURREY, ON FUNGI. 129 



rubiformis and T. Neesiana is the absence of a stem in the 

 latter species, a difference hardly sufficient to justify their 

 separation, when it is considered that the broad expanded 

 form of the base from which the peridium springs is common 

 to both species. It is probably therefore right that the two 

 should be united under one species, as was suggested some 

 time since by Messrs. Berkeley and Broome, in the ' Annals 

 of Natural History.' 



Trichia Lor'inseriaiia, Corda, ' Ic. Fung.,' vol. i, p. 23, taf. 

 vi, 288 D. — Subsolitary; stem long, of a dirty brown colour, 

 flexuous and furrowed, the ridges between the furrows being 

 sharp edged ; peridium turbinato-ovate, smooth above, burst- 

 ing irregularly or in an operculate manner; spiral threads 

 short, very pale yellow, with very delicate markings, each 

 extremity of the thread tapering gradually to a very long, 

 thin point, the spiral markings not extending into the narrow 

 extremities of the threads. Weybridge, January, 1856. 



The above description difl^ers slightly from that in the 

 * Icones Fungorum,' but I see no reason to doubt that my 

 specimens belong to the species there described. The spiral 

 threads are simple and detached, very similar to those of 

 Trichia serotina, from which they diffbr only in being con- 

 siderably longer. 



With regard to the spiral threads of the British Trichiae, 

 generally, I may observe that their form, colour, and micro- 

 scopic structure afford material assistance in the distinction 

 of species : those of T. ?iigripes, pyriformis, chrysosperma, 

 serpula, and Neesiana (or rubiformis) are figured in vol. iii. of 

 this Journal, PI. II. The only other British species which 

 have not been already referred to are Trichia fallax, varia, 

 and Ayresii. Those of Trichia varia are not distinguish- 

 able from the same organs in T. nigripes, but I have found 

 T. varia with echinulate threads ; and th^ same thing occa- 

 sionally occurs in T. chrysosperma. I have had no opportu- 

 nity of examining T. Ayresii, but the threads are described 

 as tawny and strongly echinulate. Specimens of Trichia 

 fallax exist in the Hookerian Herbarium, but they have been 

 gathered young, before the formation of the threads, and I 

 have seen no other specimens. 



I noticed on a former occasion that in Trichia pjyriformis 

 the membrane of the threads had the property of unrolling 

 itself in a spiral manner, a peculiarity which is still more 

 manifest in Trichia clavata and T. turbinata. In some threads 

 of the latter which had been soaked in hydrochloric acid, I 

 found that the tube of the thread had burst in several places 

 by a perfectly smooth spiral fissure, thus converting the tube 



