112 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



sides when dry and forming a narrow central slit, about 

 1 mm. across ; excipulum parenchymatous, cells minute, 

 brownish ; asci cylindrical, apex rounded, 8-spored ; spores 

 obliquely 1-seriate, hyaline, at first 3-septate, then with a 

 few vertical or oblique septa becoming muriform, furnished 

 with a narrow hyaline border, broadly elliptical, ends 

 obtuse, 2126 x 1012 /z ; paraphyses very numerous, 

 slender, about 1*5 /t thick, hyaline, held together by mucus. 



Patellaria melaxantha, Fries, Summa. Yeg. Scand., p. 366 ; 

 Phil., Brit. Disc., p. 370. 



On dry wood, pine bark, &c. 



Specimen in Eabh., Herb. Myc., ed. ii., n. 709, examined. 



Fam. IV. DERMATEAE. 



Ascophores erumpent, sessile or narrowed to a veiy short 

 stem-like base, usually caespitose and springing in numbers 

 from a common stroma ; corky or coriaceous ; blackish or 

 brown, often scurfy or mealy on the outside; asci 4-8-spored, 

 or in some genera containing numerous very minute con- 

 tinuous spores; when 8 in number in an ascus the spores 

 are continuous, or 1 -many-septate ; paraphyses present. 



Pycnidia and spermagonia are present in some genera. 



The plants in this order are characterised by their firm 

 texture and dark colour, varying from rhubarb-brown to 

 umber-brown and black ; they are nearly all erumpent, and 

 the majority caespitose and united at the base, as if arising 

 from a common stroma. (Phillips.) 



ANALYSIS OF THE GENEEA. 



A. Spores hyaline. 

 Cenangium. Spores elliptical, continuous. 



Scleroderris. Spores elliptical, 1-2-seriate, 3-many- 



septate. 

 Tympanis. Spores minute, innumerable. 



Crumenula. Spores very long, needle-shaped, in a 

 parallel fascicle. 



