ORGANS OF CERTAIN FUNGI. 271 



4. Sphceria Cryptosporii, n. s. — This species has not, as far 

 as I am aware, been hitherto described, and may be thus 

 characterized. 



Obtectae ; Peritheciis sparsis vel aggregatis globosis aut 

 sub-globosis, collo elongato corticem perforantibus ; nucleo 

 albido ; ascis late obovatis, sporidiis simplicibus linearibus, 

 utriusque obtusis plus minus arcuatis circiter •00036 unciae 

 longis. 



I believe this Sphceria to be the perfect state of Cryp- 

 tosporhim vulyare, on the evidence of the following facts. In 

 April of this year I placed in damp moss some twigs of alder 

 upon which Cryptosporium vulgare was growing ; in about a 

 month afterwards the long black ostiola of the above SphcBria 

 had protruded themselves through the bark. Upon examining 

 the fructification under the microscope, the resemblance of 

 the sporidia of the Sphceria to some of the naked spores of 

 Cryptosporiuvi vulgare (viz. those which were least strongly 

 curved) was so striking that a possible connexion between the 

 Sphceria and the Cryptosporium naturally suggested itself. 

 Some of the perithecia, which were in a young state, con- 

 tained an immense quantity of oily matter, and small granules 

 in a state of active motion, some densely interwoven threads 

 attached to the walls, and a very few sporidia resembling those 

 of Cryptosporium vulgare, and which had probably formed the 

 terminal joints of the threads just mentioned. 



In another of these young perithecia I observed the terminal 

 joint of two of the threads, which had assumed the shape 

 shown in fig. 12 (Z>, c). One of them contained a moniliform 

 row of oil globules, and was evidently the earliest state of 

 other young asci, fig. 12 (a), which occurred in the same 

 perithecium. In the more advanced plants the perithecia con- 

 tained perfect asci, which, with one of the escaped sporidia, 

 are shown at fig. 13 {a, b). Even when the asci within the 

 perithecia were still young, or at least not fully ripe, the 

 ostiola were surrounded with a milky substance ejected from 

 the perithecia, which consisted principally of free sporidia. 



the dimorphous ascigerous fructification, they have no tails to the sporidia, 

 and differ in no respect from Sphatria sinopica. From the description of 

 Sphceria inaurata it seems to be identical in its external characteristics 

 with Sphceria sinopica, but the fructification of the former is very peculiar. 

 It consists of two sets of asci differing in form, and containing different 

 sporidia ; the larger asci are clavate, and contain small curved sporidia 

 not exceeding * 00015th of an inch ; the smaller, cylindrical asci, contain 

 eight elliptic uniseptate sporidia •0005— "OOOGth of an inch long, fur- 

 nished with a tail at either end in the form of a delicate hyaline appendage. 

 The two sorts of asci are figured in the ' Gai'deners' Chronicle' of the 22nd 

 July, 1854, where a full description of the plant will be found. 



