Berkeley, which he called Cyathus microsporus var. Berkeleyanus. The two col- 

 lections have entirely different cups, and in our opinion should be treated as 

 species. It is an evidence of the stress that Tulasne placed on spore characters 

 more than on the grosser characters of the plants, but we are inclined to place 

 stress just the contrary. 



CYATHUS HOOKERI (Fig. 20). Cups thin, obconic, strongly 

 tapering to the base, where they are attached by a small pad of my- 

 celium. Light in color, with a matted tomentum. Spores 6x8. I 

 know this plant only imperfectly from the types at Kew (Fig. 20, en- 

 larged 4 times) which are pressed flat. It grew on dead wood, on 

 moss and lichen, covered with sawdust at Khasa, India, and was col- 

 lected by Dr. Hooker. It was placed in Eucyathus, but I can note 

 no striations. It was described as "striate or all even." I think it 

 should go in "Olla." It seems to me close to microsporus, but larger 

 spores and different cup. 



THE GENUS SPHAEROBOLUS. 



This genus is very different from all that precede, and by several 

 authors is not included in the Nidulariaceae. The plants are little, 

 globose, sub-fleshy cups, each including a single peridiole. The struc- 

 ture of the peridiole is very similar to that of others of the family, and 

 to my mind the genus should be classed as a one-peridioled Nidular- 

 iaceae. The appearance of the plants, however, is quite different from 

 others we have considered, and would not in the popular mind, at 

 least, be associated with bird's-nest fungi. 



SPHAEROBOLUS STELLATUS (Plate 1 1 1 ) . Peridium 

 fleshy, globose, about 1^-2 mm. in diameter. When fresh, yellow, 

 becoming pale or white when dried, each containing a single peridiole. 

 The walls of the peridium are said to be double, the inner separating 

 and inverting suddenly, projecting the peridiole to some distance. 38 

 Peridioles in dried specimens about i mm. in diameter, reddish brown. 3 * 

 Their structure, while so analogous to that of other Nidulariaceae 

 as to leave no doubt in our mind as to their classification, is different 

 in many respects. The peridiole wall is not hard and horny, but rather 

 fleshy, and not fibrillose in structure. In a section it appears yellowish. 

 The interior is one homogeneous mass of spore tissue, not separated 



38 This at least is the usual explanation of the dehiscence of this plant. It is thus shown by 

 Micheli, two hundred years ago, but whether the popular idea is taken from this old picture, or is. 

 based on observations of the fresh plant, I do not know. I never saw fresh specimens but once, and 

 then did not observe them as closely as I would now if I had the opportunity. I made a short note, 

 as follows : " These plants are globose about 2 mm. in diameter, and look like little yellow eggs. 

 When ripe the peridium splits at the top in a stellate manner and ejects the single yellow peridiole." 

 I can not detect on the photograph I made from these fresh specimens .Plate in, fig. ij any evidence 

 of the "inverted inner layer," nor do I find any on all the dried specimens that 1 have. That the 

 peridiole is ejected, however, in some manner, I think is well established. I have seen somewhere 

 where a French author states that he placed some fresh specimens in a dish and covered it with a pane 

 of glass at some distance (two or three inches) and that the peridioles were ejected with such force 

 that they adhered to the glass. 



89 My note from fresh specimens gives their color as " yellow." 

 28 



