292 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



Patellaria. mELA.xantha {Fries) Phillips. 

 Plate XXII, fig. n. 



L823 Peziza melaxantha Fries, Syst. Myc. , II, p. 150. 



1S71 Peziza melanotheja Cooke, Handbk. of Brit. Fung. , II, p. 706. 



1887 Patellaria melazantha Phillips, Brit. Disc, p. 370. 



1889 Blyhydium melaxanthum Saccardo, Sylloge Fung., VIII, p. 806. 



Plants minute, not more than i mm. in diameter, generally 

 less gregarious, or often confluent, depressed, yellowish brown, 

 darker externally near the base; hymenium concave, plane or 

 slightly convex, more or less papillate or rough; asci clavate 

 12 to 14 by 100 to no microns, very slender at the base, apex 

 rounded, attenuated; spores 8, fusiform, generally curved, 

 5 to 7 septate, hyaline, 35 to 40 by 3 to 4 microns, obliquely 

 arranged in the ascus, more or less twisted around each other; 

 paraphyses filiform, branched. 



Habitat — On decaying wood, Iowa City. 



There is doubt as to the specific name given above on ac- 

 count of the incomplete description given for that species. 

 The plants described here have been collected several times 

 in the summer and fall. They are minute in size but always 

 gregarious, and often forming a confluent yellowish mass. 

 The internal characters are quite distinct. Spores are fusi- 

 form, generally curved or double curved, becoming very 

 slightly S-shaped, from 5 to 7 septate (generally 7), and often 

 apparently constricted at the septa. Paraphyses are less dis- 

 tinct, but filliform and branched. 



Family VII— CENANGIACE^. 



Receptacle at first immersed then breaking through the sub- 

 stratum, leathery or gelatinous, generally dark colored, at first 

 closed then expanded, becoming cup-shaped, when young cov- 

 ered with a tough membranous covering which disappears 

 with age. Asci generally 8-spored; spores 1 to many celled, 

 often muriform, hyaline to black. Paraphyses often enlarged 

 upwards, forming a well developed epithecium. 



