264 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



6. Orbilia leucostigma Fr., v, xanthostigma (Fr.) Rehm. 



I have found this fungus very frequently growing luxuriantly 

 and examined many specimens, also I have had it under 

 observation while growing for many months. The form of the 

 spores is described as elliptical or egg-shaped by Massee, 

 Rehm and Saccardo; this description is misleading and in- 

 complete since they are decidedly U-shaped: when the two ends 

 of the U are in view the spores appear as two circles (0 0) and 

 only when the curved top of the U is in focus can they be 

 called elliptical (figs. 9, 10). In Boudier's Icones they are figured 

 as U-shaped. 



This fungus seems to me identical with 0. coccinella (Somm.) 

 Fr. the spores of which are said to be slightly wider, being given 

 as 3-4 / 2/x, thus having only a trifling difference from 

 3-4 X I-5/X (Massee) or 3-4 / 2-3/M (Boudier), the measurements 

 of 0. leucostigma v. xanthostigma; also the colour distinction is 

 insignificant. 0. coccinella is described as blood red or deep 

 orange red while 0. leucostigma v. xanthostigma is said to be 

 yellow with sometimes a tinge of red when fresh. The specimens 

 which I find usually vary from yellow to deep orange and often 

 there is a sprinkling of whitish translucent forms among them 

 while, when dry, a blood red colouration is usual, but this varies 

 and is sometimes yellow; I have seen them just as blood red as 

 those figured by Boudier as 0. coccinella. 



Although Boudier figures spores of 0. coccinella as ellipsoid, 

 in Engler and Prantl two figures of the spores are given, the 

 one (profile view) showing a very curved, almost a U form, the 

 other elliptical; thus all characters considered there is no real 

 distinction between 0. leucostigma v. xanthostigma and 0. cocci- 

 nella. 



7. Pyrenopeziza plicata Rehm ( = Mollisia plicata (Rehm) 



Sacc. sec. Boud.) f. conicola. 



Ascophores scattered and crowded, |-| mm. diameter, 

 sessile, or when young very shortly stalked, closed and almost 

 globose at first, becoming saucer-shaped or even repand when 

 old; disc greyish, margin whitish, fimbriate, hairs septate and 

 obtuse; excipulum olive brown or blackish, parenchymatous, 

 rough with rounded hair-like outgrowths from the cortical cells, 

 often more or less vertically wrinkled; asci cylindrical, apex 

 somewhat narrowed, 80 x 6/Lt; spores oblong, fusiform, hyaline, 

 continuous, straight, or slightly curved; two seriate; io-12/x x 2/Lt; 

 paraphyses slender, hyaline, equal, 2/Lt wide and same length as 

 the asci (figs. 11, 14, 15, 17). 



The apothecium is often attached to the substratum by a 

 fringe of colourless hyphae (fig. 11a). 



