176 Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Mr. C. E. Broome on British Fungi. 



XVI. — Notices of British Fungi. By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 M.A., F.L.S., and C. E. Broome, Esq. 



[Continued from p. 102.] 

 [With three Plates.] 



538. Dendryphium curtum, n. s. Effusum tenue ; floccis erectis, 

 sursum in ramulos breves fureatos divisis ; sporis curvulis 3-7- 

 scptatis articulis constrictis. On dead stems of nettles, Dundee, 

 W. :M. OgiMe, Esq. 



Black, forming very thin effused patches. Fertile flocci spring- 

 ing from creeping filaments, erect, straight, septate, divided above 

 into a few short furcate or trifid ramuli, which are surmounted 

 by curved 3-7-septate spores, whose articulations are strongly 

 constricted. 



A small but neat species, remarkable for the short forked ra- 

 muli. The tips of these are often greatly constricted at the arti- 

 culations when the spores begin to grow. D. ati~um is far more 

 loosely branched, though its spores resemble greatly those of our 

 species. D. comosum is evidently a far less delicate species. 



Plate VI. fig. 9. a. Flocci magnified; h. tips of ditto more highly vas^- 

 nified ; c. spores. 



539. D. laxum, n. s. Stipitibus brevibus sursum laxe ramosis ; 

 sporis elongatis subllexuosis 7-11-septatis. On dead stems of 

 Inula viscosa, King's Cliffe. 



Patches effused, black. Flocci short, erect, articulated, send- 

 ing off loose branches, which either spring at once from them or 

 are replaced by a few swollen joints. Spores linear, curved, or 

 somewhat flexuous, multiseptate, springing often from the forked 

 tips ; articulations slightly constricted ; endochrome frequently 

 containing a nucleus. 



This agrees in some points with Dendryphium comosum as 

 figured by Corda, but less so with Wallroth's description. The 

 spores are more frequently septate, and the branches are even 

 less completely disposed in a head than in Corda's figure. 



The spores in this genus sometimes form moniliform threads, 

 and sometimes exhibit the more usual mode of growth in Sep- 

 tonema. In the present case we have not seen them very clearly 

 spring from one another, but the whole structure is that of Den- 

 dryphium, and indeed in certain states of the described species 

 of the genus they are not proliferous, or only become so at a more 

 advanced period of growth. Dactylium atrum belongs apparently 

 to the same genus. 



Plate VI. fig. 10. a, a. Flocci magnified : in one thread the spicules 

 are apparent to which the spores are at first attached ; 6. tip of fertile 

 thread ; c. tip of another thread highly magnified ; d. spores. 



