Q2 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
stating that, whatever appearance of a veil there was, was due 
to a covering of white adpressed mycelium over the basal 
stroma, and no true volva was present. This immediately 
suggests a doubt whether they were dealing with the same 
fungus, for Microcera has the structure described by Desma- 
ziéres, by whatever name one may call it. 
There can, however, be no doubt that the Microcera of 
Desmaziéres is the Sphaerostilbe (conidial stage) of the Tulasnes. 
Yet one is loth to believe that such acute observers could have 
overlooked a feature which had been so strongly emphasised in 
a previous description. The probable explanation is that they 
were misled by Desmaziéres’ unhappy comparison to a phalloid, 
and sought for a velum, or volva, surrounding the base of the 
stem of the Stilboid form: this supposition would appear to be 
supported by their statement that the apparent volva is merely 
mycelium on the surface of the stroma. But Desmaziéres’ 
“velum”’ consists of the outer layer of the erect parallel hyphae 
which form the synnema; these are adherent to, or form the 
outer layer of, the stalk, but they do not terminate above in 
conidiophores, but in a series of teeth just below the head. 
They constitute a closely adherent sheath divided above into 
several narrow teeth which sometimes separate into a fringe of 
hyphae. 
The next record of a Nectria on scale insects was made by 
Berkeley and Broome in their Fungi of Ceylon, No. 1028 (1873). 
They described there a species, as “‘Nectria aurantucola B. 
and Br. Peritheclis aurantiacis in stromate erecto sitis; ascis 
clavatis; sporidiis ellipticis uniseptatis, sporisque fusuloideis 
(Thwaites, 190). On orange twigs. Ascospores 15 long, 775 u 
wide; conidia fusiform, curved, multiseptate, 90 » long; others 
triseptate and strongly curved, 20 long. Apparently growing 
from some Coccus.” They gave figures of “‘a barren plant’; 
a stilboid synnema, bearing perithecia on the stalk; asci and 
ascospores; “‘flocci with fusiform conidia”; and a single long 
conidium. In 1875, Berkeley and Curtis described Nectria 
aglaothele, which grew on the remains of a coccus on alder in 
New England. 
About 1886, Spegazzini described a new species of Nectria, 
growing on a coccus on fallen leaves, from Brazil, as Nectria 
coccorum; and a few years later (1889), another species, on a 
coccus on living leaves of a Eugenia, from the same country, 
as Nectria coccogena. No conidial stage was recorded for either. 
In 1886, Ellis and Everhart described Ophionectria coccicola 
from Florida. 
The number of conidial forms was increased in 1887 by the 
description of Microcera rectispora Cke. and Mass. This had 
