THE GENUS GYTTARIA. 



The receipt of specimens, both dried and in preservative, of two 

 South American species from Marcial R. Espinosa, Chief of the 

 Cryptogamic Section of the National Museum, Santiago, Chile, has 

 induced us to revise the species of this curious genus. It is known 

 only from Australasia and southern South America. We gave a 

 notice of the Australasian species in Mycological Notes, page 578, 

 and there made the erroneous statement that the South American 

 species were all solid. We gathered that from the illustration, but 

 the specimens on hand show that we were mistaken. 



The genus Cyttaria was published by Berkeley (Trans. Linn. 

 Soc., Vol. 19, 1841), and based on specimens brought by Darwin 

 from Terra del Fuego. They grow there in great quantity in the 

 "beech woods" on trees that are much diseased. The Cyttaria is a 

 parasite, and causes large excrescences and deformation of the wood 

 which bear the fungus. In the Cryptogamic Museum at Harvard 

 there are fine specimens of these excrescences, on exhibition, that 

 were collected by Dr. Thaxter. The fungi are gathered and eaten by 

 the natives, but their substance is tough, and from accounts are not 

 very palatable, but the primitive races of this region eat most any- 

 thing. In his original account Berkeley described and figured the 

 two following species. 



CYTTARIA BERTEROI (compiled in Saccardo as Cyttaria 

 Berterii) was described by Berkeley in his original account of the 

 genus. He did not find the spores. His figure looks much like his 

 figure of Cyttaria Darwinii, th only distinction he was able to point 

 out is that the cups' mouths have lacerate remains of the pore cover- 

 ings. We would not hold that of much importance, but Spegazzini 

 distinguishes it from Cyttaria Darwinii by the same characters and 

 smaller spores 5-6 x 15, and reports it as rare. Monsieur Hariot did 

 not find it. The color is bright orange. 



CYTTARIA DARWINII, FROM M. R. ESPINOSA, SAN- 

 TIAGO (Fig. 992). This is the original species from the extreme 



south of Chile. Mr. Espinosa does 



jfj+> ^ n t gi ve the locality, but I presume 



V% 4c ^HHfe*"' they S row i n the neighborhood of 



*" x '^r' B&- ' Santiago. How far north the species 



^Bfiuip'' extends I do not know. 



As shown in our photograph it 



w^ is a hard, globose body when dry, 



with distant pores. The color is 

 bright orange when fresh. Asci 



line the pores (excepting the bottom of the pores) in a palisade layer 

 but in specimens I received the spores are immature. They are given 

 by Fischer as 10-15 x 20 mic. hyaline, smooth. By Spegazzini as 

 8 x 14-16. The characters of Cyttaria Darwinii are its thick, tough 

 flesh and the few distant pores. We present photographs of the two 

 specimens received from Mr. Espinosa. One is a young specimen with 



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