194 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



sterile basal disc, cells polygonal or elliptical, minute, 0-25- 

 I mm. diam.; in old or dried specimens becoming hollow in the 

 centre, the gleba collapsing and lining the inner walls of the 

 peridium and trabeculae, bay brown. Capillitium absent. Spores 

 smooth, elliptical, frequently pedicellate, tinted yellow or olive, 

 almost hyaline, 6-11 x 3-5-5 /x. 



Habitat : Gregarious or caespitose on the floor of beech forest. 



Distribution : New Zealand. 



Locality unknown, T. Kirk. Specimen in Herb. Kew. 



Locality unknown. Reader. Specimen in Herb. Kew. 



Beech Forest, York Bay, Wellington, 80-100 m., E. H. A. 

 Atkinson! E. J. Butler! G. H. C. Dun Mt, Nelson, 650m., 

 J. C. Neill! Queenstown, Otago, 450 m., W. D. Reid! 



The plants are at first subterranean, but as they approach 

 maturity they appear on the surface. They occur commonly in 

 groups of half-a-dozen or more and are rendered conspicuous by 

 the violet colour of the peridium. 



Some twelve stages were obtained and these were found 

 sufficient to give a connected idea of development. The material 

 was fixed in picro-formol, sectioned and stained in iron-alum 

 haematoxylin followed by a i per cent, solution of iodine green 

 in clove oil. This combination gave satisfactory results as both 

 nuclei and hyphae are readily stained by it. 



Structure of the Mature Plant. 



The plant is sessile, being attached to the substratum by a 

 few basal rhizoids. It consists of a thick, coloured cortex — the 

 peridium — enclosing a cellular gleba. No columella is present, 

 though there is a sterile basal disc, from which several trabeculae 

 arise. 



Peridium. This consists of a single thick layer (2-3 mm.), 

 (fig. 8), coloured externally, dingy- white internally. It is com- 

 posed of closely woven, much branched hyphae, in which 

 numerous clamp-connections are present. The hyphae remain 

 distinct during the life of the plant, and at no time are gela- 

 tinised, nor do they assume the form of a pseudoparenchyma. 

 The colour is due to the presence, in the outer layers of hyphae, 

 of numerous pigment granules which are embedded in the proto- 

 plasm lining the walls of the hyphae. Such granules become 

 conspicuous in sections on account of the readiness with which 

 they take the haematoxylin stain. The peridium is attached 

 throughout to the plates of the gleba, and is not separable from 

 them. 



Gleba. In fresh plants the gleba is minutely cellular. It con- 

 sists of very numerous tramal plates enclosing polygonal or 

 irregularly elliptical lacunae. The whole gleba is traversed by 



