HELOTIUM. 235 



glabrous, bay-brown (when dry), l|-2 mm. across; excipu- 

 lum formed of hyaline, densely interwoven hyphae about 

 4 fj. thick; asci clavate, apex slightly narrowed, pedicel 

 short, 8-spored; spores irregularly 2-seriate, hyaline, con- 

 tinuous, elliptic-fusiform, ends acute, often slightly curved, 

 25-30 x 5-6 M; paraphyses slender, septate, sometimes 

 forked, slightly thickened at the tips, which are sometimes 

 brown. 



On dead twigs (willow ?). 



Type specimen examined. 



"When the twigs are covered with bark, the fungus is 

 erumpent, bursting through the bark. Closely resembling 

 H. terrigenum in the size and form of spores, asci, and para- 

 physes, differing in colour, the sessile ascophore, and in the 

 structure of the excipulum. 



Helotium imberbe. Fries, Summa Veg. Scand., 

 p. 356; Phil., Brit. Disc., p. 164; Sacc., Syll., viii. n. 878. 



Gregarious, stem very short or absent, subglobose and 

 closed when young, becoming nearly plane, margin entire, 

 sometimes wavy, incurved when dry, firm, i 1 mm. across, 

 glabrous, entirely white, pallid or with an amber tinge when 

 dry ; cortex consisting of elongated, very narrow cells, run- 

 ning parallel from base to margin ; asci narrowly clavate, 

 apex slightly narrowed, pedicel slender, 8-spored; spores 

 obliquely 2-seriate, hyaline, continuous, linear-elliptic, often 

 slightly curved, 813 x 1'5 2 fj.; paraphyses slender, hya- 

 line, apex slightly thickened. 



Peziza imberbis, Bull., Champ. Fr., t. 467, f. 2. 



On wood of willow and alder. 



Specimen determined by Berkeley examined, also Fuckel, 

 Fung. Ehen., n. 1148. 



Eesembling H. lenticulare in habit, but distinguished by 

 the totally white colour of the ascophore and the smaller 

 spores. 



Helotium laburni. B. & Br., Ann. Nat. Hist., n. 1624, 

 ser. iv., vol. xvii. p. 143 (1876). 



Gregarious, sessile or shortly stipitate, closed at first, then 

 concave, finally plane, contracted when dry, margin usually 

 minutely incurved ; disc whitish, clear ochraceous, or yellow, 

 externally pale, minutely furfuraceous, up to 1 mm. across, 



